On 19 August, just over two years after reaching the $1trn market cap on 2 August 2018, Apple doubled its valuation to become the first US-listed firm to reach the $2trn market cap milestone. With a c. 4.28bn share count, Apple broke the $2trn market cap barrier when its price rose to $467.77. The share has retreated slightly at the time of writing but is still up c. 61% YTD (to 20 August). It took c. two months for Apple’s market cap to jump from a $1.5trn (on 16 June), to $2trn. In August 2011, when Tim Cook took over as CEO, Apple’s market cap was $349bn. Oil giant, Saudi Aramco is the only other publicly listed company to have hit the $2trn market cap mark, which it reached in December 2019, two days after its record IPO.
Apple, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, listed in December 1980 at a $22 share price and a market cap of c. $2bn. In May 2007, one month before the iPhone’s debut, Apple hit a market cap of $100bn. In May 2010, it overtook Microsoft as the most valuable US-listed company. In 2012, Apple’s market cap jumped to $600bn and in August 2018, it became the first US company to achieve a $1trn valuation.
Apple has released world-changing products, the most famous being the iPhone. Since its launch, the firm has also expanded into the services and wearables markets. In its latest quarterly results (3Q20), Apple reported iPhone revenue of $26.4bn, while its Services and Wearables segments’ revenue reached $13.1bn and $6.4bn, respectively.
On 31 July, Apple announced its fifth stock split, saying this would allow it to “appeal to a broader base of investors”. On 24 August, investors will receive three additional shares for every one share they own, while the share price will be divided by four, thus bringing it closer to a $100. Apple previously had 2-for-1 stock splits in 1987, 2000 and 2005, as well as a 7-for-1 split in 2014. If you had bought 1 Apple share before the first stock split in 1987, you will own 224 shares after the next split happens.
Written exclusively for Moore South Africa by Marco de Matos from
Anchor Research