After a heady stock advance this year, Apple has ended today’s trading session with a market capitalization above $800 billion. $802.77 billion at the close, to be exact.
“The threshold represents a new milestone for the iPhone maker and sets a high-water mark for public companies,” Chris Dieterich writes for The Wall Street Journal. “Enormous numbers such as Apple’s market cap are often difficult to grasp. Below are a few comparisons, some of which are intentionally not meant to be taken apples-to-apples, to help put the $800 billion figure in context.”
• By itself, Apple’s market capitalization exceeds the combined market values of the 102 smallest companies on the S&P 500, according to FactSet.
• Apple’s market cap is more the 2015 gross domestic products of 183 out of the 199 countries tracked by the World Bank. It’s approximately the same size as the combined GDPs of Iran and Austria.
More things Apple is bigger than in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s one of our own:
Apple is now worth nearly $100 billion ($98.48B) more than “Wintel,” Microsoft ($533.02B) + Intel ($171.27B). That $98.48B gap is more than the market values of Tesla ($52.40B) and Sony ($43.43B) combined.
Adjusted for inflation, wasn’t Microsoft still with more ham 800 billion in the 90s? Anyone have an inflation adjust or calculator?
Sry for typos!☺️
https://qz.com/300946/microsoft-at-its-peak-would-have-crushed-apple/
But back then, Microsoft was only making about $10B a year, so its PE was above 60, thus when the internet bubble burst, Microsoft tanked harder. Compare that to Apple who’ll make close to $50B this year, with a PE that is within the historical normal range for the S&P500.
but apple will probably go higher before it finally crashes down to current M$ levels.
So it looks like Apple will need to hit around 860 billion before it passes Microsoft at its peak adjusted for inflation – that’s actually closer than I thought. 🙂
Yes, that is correct. The peak market cap for Microsoft actually occurred in 2000.
Inflation is not the only adjustment. The tech stocks were way out of kilter at the time – living in a bubble that burst because of their “over inflated” value.
you are saying its not over inflated now? how is a stupid app like slack “worth” 3.8 billion? its an IRC client with an Atom wrapper.
The difference is that the peak in MSFT was a momentary spike that collapsed immediately. Compare AAPL, which has been a long term build, though not without its wobbles.
“No modern tech company has approached the value of trading companies of the 1700s, though, and the Dutch East India Company trumps them all. The shipping juggernaut was the world’s first publicly traded company. At its height, according to several estimates, it was worth the equivalent of more than $7 trillion in 2015 dollars. That’s a seven with 12 zeros after it—or Apple’s valuation today 10 times over.”
And that’s why Tim Cook has gotta go. He’s not even doing as well as a company from the 1700’s!!
How about some history to go with the story of the Dutch East India Company? the bubble burst at some point I am sure.
WAgain: not only that, but I’ll bet they were better at shipping and their inroads to India were deeper.
😉 I know, right??
actually, i think if apple is within 10% of the dutch east india company, then that qualifies as “approaching” since it is about an order of magnitude.
It’s still less than some of the recent Federal budget deficits.
I need some perspective. Why does my instructor believe that Alphabet, today, has more cash than Apple? He’s said it like 10 times in class and it’s one of those things I am uncomfortable calling him out on, without any understanding.
Is he full of it or am I just asleep at my desk?
He’s full of it. You should do your own investigation and correct his ass.
Probably based upon a technicality. Google has $92B in ST cash and investments, the traditional definition of cash. Apple has only $67B in ST cash and investments. However, Apple has another $190B in LT investments.
Typically, we consider ST investments like money markets and treasuries just like cash, so we include it with cash. That definition gives us $92B v $67B; however, Apple’s LT investments are in US Treasuries and high-quality corporates, which are essentially as liquid as cash, so every financial analyst treats it like cash. Imagine Apple having to roll over ST Treasuries every 3 months on $250B dollars? The logistics are huge, so they’ve rolled the majority of their cash into Longer-Term Treasuries and the like. So, under traditional definitions it’s not cash, but for all practical purposes it is. That’s why everyone says Apple has over $250B in cash.
Thanks Ken. It’s a lot more complicated than one would think. So like any other statistic, ignore the numbers that don’t support one’s POV. In the end Google shouldn’t be able to pull Netflix or Disney away from Apple, if it were to come down to it. And no Google does’t have $200B+ in cash.