Apple Market Cap Approaches $800 Billion, a Record

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 2:12PM EST · Published Mar 7, 6:30AM EST

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Apple Market Cap Approaches $800 Billion, a Record — © Wikimedia Commons

[cnxvideo id=”655354″ placement=”ros”]No company’s market cap has ever reached $800 billion. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is about to touch that goal. It only has to go 9% higher. And, based on the stock surge this year and speculation that the iPhone 8 will trigger unprecedented demand for the smartphone, it may breach that level soon.

Apple has posted the largest increase in share price this year of any component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It trades 20% higher than at the start of 2017, at a record price of $139. The Dow has risen only 6% to 20,954.

A number of securities analysts who cover Apple have prices targets well in excess of its current price. As just one example, Rob Cihra of Guggenheim Securities recently raised his price target from $150 to $180. Many analysts have price targets in excess of the $150 level.

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There are two primary mitigating factors to a continued run up in Apple’s share price. One is the quarterly earnings report at the end of April. The most recent quarter set a high hurdle, which analysts do not think the company can approach again soon. This is because it was the period that includes the year-end shopping season. Revenue was $79 million, and Apple sold 78.3 million iPhones. Its forecast for the current quarter:

revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion

gross margin between 38 percent and 39 percent

operating expenses between $6.5 billion and $6.6 billion

other income/(expense) of $400 million

tax rate of 26 percent

If it can top those numbers, shares almost certainly will react positively.

The other reason Apple’s stock may trade up is rumors about the iPhone 8. Many suggest features that would be a leap ahead of competition. MacRumors expects these features will include the following:

Apple has a major iPhone redesign planned for 2017, with a glass body and edge-to-edge OLED display that includes an integrated Touch ID fingerprint sensor and front-facing camera. The new iPhone may be sold alongside upgraded (but standard) 4.7 and 5.5-inch iPhones.

Apple’s share price has risen relentlessly since last May. It would not take much in the way of positive news to have the trend continue.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.