Mike Wuerthele
Apple's stock price on Monday hit a new record at the close of business of $146.57, with the stock sitting less than a dollar away from beating the old market capitalization record set in 2015.
With Apple's quarterly earnings set to be revealed on Tuesday at close of business, investors snapped up shares, driving the stock up just shy of $3.00 at the end of a busy trading day. Apple stock rose about 2 percent, and outperformed the market which was up less than 1 percent on the day.
Apple's market capitalization broke $700 billion on Feb. 14, and currently sits at $769 billion, needing to only hit $147.42 per share to eclipse the previous $774.7 billion record. Since the start of 2017, Apple's stock has climbed from $115.82 to Monday's high.
An earlier notable peak for the year was hit on on March 20 was said to be on the strength of the next day's product releases, which turned out to be an inexpensive 9.7-inch iPad, a (Product)Red iPhone 7, and an iPhone SE with double the storage. On March 28, Apple broke through a a $1,000 per share valuation corrected for the split.
Analysts suggest that Apple's share price can climb far higher in fiscal year 2017. While some suggest Apple could climb to between $140 and $150 per share. UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said in a research note that Apple's Services arm is undervalued by investors, compared to other parts of the company, and between it and a "super cycle" in the fall involving the "iPhone 8," Apple could see prices greater than $155 per share.
At the end of April, Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um has gleaned some data from Qualcomm's reduction in earnings warning. Given that Qualcomm has reduced guidance by $500 million, Um wrote in a research note provided to AppleInsider that this roughly translates into 51 million iPhone unit sales for the last quarter — similar to the 51.2 sold in the year-ago quarter, and in line with Wall Street's predictions.
IDC believes that Apple sold 51.6 million iPhones in the quarter. "The strong holiday fourth quarter carried into the month of January as the larger iPhone 7 Plus returned to stock across most channels in numerous regions," research firm IDC said in its latest report.
Apple sold a record 78.3 million iPhones in the December quarter, but saw extensive delays on 7 Plus shipments, sometimes as much as 6 to 8 weeks in the case of "jet black" models, leading to IDC's prediction.
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17 Comments
Intraday high today: $147.20
My impression is that it has been pretty rare over the last 10 years for AAPL to sustain a P/E higher than 17, which is where we are at now. Wall Street seems to require Apple to "prove it" on earnings more than some other companies.
So I'm guessing that there's more downside than upside for the rest of the year, unless of course Apple really blows through expectations with the iPhone refresh in the fall.
It looks like early retirement for me. Go Apple Go.
Based on the last reported outstanding shares count, AAPL would need to close at $147.66 to set a new (on-the-close) market cap record. But Apple will likely report a new outstanding share count (as of sometime in April) which would require a higher per share price to reach that mark. Over the last two years Apple's outstanding shares count has dropped by an average of a little over 70 million per quarter. If it did something like that this last quarter, AAPL would need to get close to $150 to set a new market cap record.
Does anyone want to make predictions regarding announcements that Apple will make tomorrow related to its capital return program? How much has Apple's board increased the share repurchase authorization? And how much has it increased the dividend?
In 2015 the repurchase authorization was increased from $90 billion to $140 billion, and last year it was increased further to $175 billion. As of the end of last year $144 billion of that had been spent. The dividend was increased in 2015 from 47 to 52 cents per share, and then to 57 cents per share in 2016.