Apple is now the first company in the world to close with a value exceeding $700 billion – that’s £458 billion sterling.
The company saw its shares close on Tuesday priced at $122.02. When you multiply that by the number of shares and you get Apple’s market capitalisation, which amounted to $710.7 billion Apple’s case.
The second highest market valuation, for contrast, is Exxon, the current worth of which is some $385 billion.
So why is Apple valued so highly? The first reason is the resounding success of last year’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch.
The handsets’ combined sales helped rake in around $76.4 billion in revenue last quarter, making it the most profitable quarter for any company.
What’s more, Apple’s Q4 2014 profits made up 93 per cent of the total profits produced by mobile technology companies across the globe.
This incredible fiscal success has resulted in investors putting great faith in what is undoubtedly the most profitable company on the planet.
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The upcoming Apple Watch launch also has some part to play in Apple’s booming market valuation.
Markets are responding to assumed success for Apple’s first foray into wearables, and the share price has increased to reflect the good faith in upcoming Apple products.
Where the company will rank in two quarters time will very much depend on the success of the Apple Watch.
A poor public reception of the device could result in share value sliding until the firm launches this year’s smartphone.
If the wearable goes down well however, Apple could find itself as the first trillion dollar firm in no time at all.
Apple first opened shares to the public back in 1980, and has since seen share value rise by upwards of 50,000 per cent.
Its current market cap is double that of Google’s, 2.5x bigger than Walmart, four times bigger than the Bank of America, eight times more than McDonalds, 12x General Motors, and 24x Twitter.