NEW YORK, Aug 1 — Apple Inc’s surged over 10 per cent to a record high yesterday after reporting blockbuster quarterly results, helping the iPhone maker eclipse Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company.
Apple’s stock ended the session at US$425.04 (RM1,802.17), putting its market capitalisation at US$1.82 trillion, according to the share count provided by Apple in a regulatory filing yesterday.
It was Apple’s largest one-day percentage gain since March 13, and it added US$172 billion in market capitalisation during the session, greater than the entire stock market value of Oracle Corp
Saudi Aramco, which had been the most valuable publicly listed company since going public last year, had a market capitalisation of US$1.760 trillion as of its last close, according to Refinitiv data.
After Apple bought back US$16 billion worth of shares in the June quarter, it had 4,275,634,000 outstanding shares, as of July 17, according to the filing.
With yesterday's stock gain, Apple’s has surged about 45 per cent year to date, with investors betting that it and other major US technology companies will emerge from the coronavirus pandemic stronger than smaller rivals.
In its quarterly report, Apple announced a four-for-one stock split, with trading on a split-adjusted basis starting on August 31. It will be Apple’s first share split since 2014.
Over 20 analysts raised their price targets for Apple’s stock following the company’s report, according to Refinitiv. However, the new median analyst price target of US$409.63 is more than US$15 short of yesterday's closing price. — Reuters
