Will Apple’s Market Cap Limit The Stock? (AAPL, JPM, GE, JNJ, PG, MSFT, XOM, WMT)

24/7 Wall Street has a real-time index we keep of the 500 largest market caps of US equities.  This is The 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500.  Of these, the 23 highest are deemed mega-cap stocks as they have market capitalization rates of more than $100 billion.  Almost every public information source varies on market capitalization rates based upon the dilution or full number of shares which are counted.  But what gets interesting is that as companies get larger and larger in market cap, it seems as though it gets harder and harder for their stocks to keep rising indefinitely.  Enter Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) at new 52-week and all-time highs today.  Apple’s market cap today is now within striking distance of $200 billion.

If that holds, it will be the #4 position in US market cap on our list per Interactive Data calculations for real-time market cap calculations.  We would note that other lists may show it as being ranked #5.  The position is not the point exactly.  The issue that needs to start being considered is the actual market capitalization or market cap.

As far as how Apple ranks, the company is worth more in stock market dollars than JPMorgan Chase & Company (NYSE: JPM) at $169 billion, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) at $174 billion, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) at $176 billion, and The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) at $184 billion.  These values and rankings of course change each day based upon share prices.

Apple is still far behind the market cap of the #2 position of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) at $250.9 billion.  Microsoft’s market cap is deemed by some investors as one of the issues that has prevented its stock from rising year after year as it once did.  But it is not far behind the $206 billion market cap of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) still of course dwarfs all market capitalization rates with a monster figure of $313 billion as its market cap.  Exxon’s biggest problem even during the height of the oil craze is that its stock lagged many of the smaller players.  Some attribute this to the notion that it just took too much investor inflows of capital to keep moving the needle compared to peers with market caps under the mega-cap status.

Sales and sales alone can never be used to show a true value, but it does show how each company contributes to the overall US economy and to GDP.  Thomson Reuters has annual sales expectations for these companies.  Apple sales are expected to be over $53 billion in 2010.  Here is how that ranks in comparison for the other companies in their fiscal 2010:

• Exxon Mobil Corp. is expected to be about $390 billion.
• Microsoft Corporation sales are expected to be almost $61.5 billion (June).
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sales expectations are over $428 billion.
• General Electric Co. sales are expected to be over $155 billion.
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) sales are expected to be over $64 billion.
• The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) sales are expected to be almost $80 billion (June-end).

Apple keeps growing and keeps surprising.  It keeps bringing out a cooler and better mousetrap for those who crave consumer electronics.  The iPhone, iPod, iTouch, and Mac are all about to be joined by the iPad.

Does this mean that Apple’s day is over?  No.  In fact, stocks which hit new 52-week highs or all-time highs tend to put in even higher highs.  Only time will be the judge of whether or not Apple’s stock will keep soaring.  But size does matter when it comes to investing, and eventually it starts taking larger and larger sums of money to move the needle in share prices.  Theoretically anyway.

JON C. OGG