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Alphabet again briefly overtakes Apple as America's most valuable company

Shares hit a 52-week low on Thursday, inching below $90 and allowing rival Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to surpass its market capitalization once again — at least temporarily.

As of intra-day trading Thursday morning, Apple's market cap hovered below $492 billion. The company reached a new 52-week low of $89.47.

Shares of GOOG, meanwhile, started the day on an upward trend, trading as high as $719.25. That was enough to push Alphabet's market cap — briefly —  ahead of Apple's.

It didn't last, however. As the morning wore on, shares of GOOG dipped into the red.

As of publication, Alphabet's market cap had dropped back below $490 billion.

The numbers are a long way off from early 2015, when Apple became the first company in U.S. history to reach a $700 billion market cap. At the time, shares of AAPL were trading at around $122.

By late February of last year, Apple's market cap approached $775 billion, making it twice as large as the then-No. 2 largest company, Exxon Mobile.

Since then, shares of AAPL have struggled. The company is more than $40 off from its 52-week high of $132.97.

Alphabet had also briefly topped Apple earlier this year, in February, after Google outperformed Wall Street expectations for its holiday quarter. Apple, however, reclaimed the top spot in trading the very next day.