Apple’s Market Cap Lead Over Alphabet Tops $100 Billion

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 6:58AM EST · Published Oct 21, 8:05AM EDT

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Apple’s Market Cap Lead Over Alphabet Tops $100 Billion — © courtesy of Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has boasted the largest market cap among all public companies for years. Its value currently stands at $807 billion. During the course of 2017, it has increased its lead over number two Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which has a market cap of $696 billion.

So far this year, Apple’s market cap has increased by 34%, while Alphabet’s is up 22%. Apple’s strength has ridden the rumored demand of its new iPhone 8 and iPhone X, as well as growth of its software business. Even rumors of low supply of its new iPhone products has barely dented its share price, which is up 2% in the past month compared to a 3% advance in the S&P 500. For many companies, such negative and persistent rumors would do more damage.

Apple’s strength has another component, at least near term. The three-month holiday season has just started. Demand for Apple products spikes toward the end of each year as Americans go shopping. Unless the shortage of iPhones is crippling, Apple could rack up a record quarter in terms of both revenue and earnings.

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Apple also has an investor benefit most huge tech companies do not. It pays a dividend, and the current yield is 1.6%. That seems less than modest, but not for a company with Apple’s recent share price record.

It is almost impossible for Alphabet to close the gap with Apple. Granted, its Google business is the world’s largest search engine. However, its revenue growth has slowed and probably will slow further. Google does not have the strong product introduction benefit Apple has with the iPhone.

Apple’s position at the top of the market cap list could last well into the future.

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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.