The contest to become the globe’s first $1tn business is as good as won after Apple shares surged on stock markets on Monday.
During the first few hours of trading yesterday AAPL shares reached $187.60 per share, placing the Cupertino-based firm ‘only’ $55bn below the sought-after $1tn market cap level.
What served as a major boost for Apple shares was the firm’s better than expected earnings for the second quarter which was announced at the start of May. For quite a few months before this earnings report was released analysts had been predicting slipping iPhone sales, but Apple pulled a rabbit from its hat with the announcement that it sold 52.5 million iPhones.
The company’s share price closed at $185.16 on Monday, after briefly reaching $187.38 during the day – which at that moment gave it a market cap of $945bn. By the end of trading, however, that figure, fell back to $904.4bn.
Legendary investor Warren Buffet also played a major role in Apple’s exploding share price. His firm Berkshire Hathaway purchased additional Apple shares during the first few months of this year, which means that nearly 25% of its total portfolio is currently invested in this company.
Buffet said during a recent interview that at the current market price he would purchase all Apple’s shares if he could.
Speaking on CNBC, the billionaire said: “I clearly like Apple. We buy them to hold.”
He added that they currently owned about 5% of Apple, but that he would love to own 100%. What he loved, he concluded, was the management, the way they thought, and the economics of their business activities.