“Given the trajectory of Apple’s stock it’s probably fair to start pondering how high, in theory, it could go,” Matt Krantz reports for USA Today.
“Hitting the $1 trillion mark for market value would be an accomplishment of historic proportions, as no company has ever done it before,” Krantz reports. “The most valuable company of all time was Microsoft, which was worth $604 billion in 2000, says Howard Silverblatt of S&P.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ironically, Microsoft did that thanks to Apple and a badly-written contract signed by unprepared sugared water salesbozo.
“What about Apple? Could it be different this time around?” Krantz wonders. “To be worth $1 trillion, shares of Apple would need to hit $1,085 a share based on the company’s current 921.3 million shares outstanding.”
“Can that happen? Let’s first take a look at how fast the stock has risen the past five years. Apple stock rose 18% in 2006, 133% in 2007, it fell 56% in 2008, but then added 147% in 09 and 53% in 2010,” Krantz reports. “Taking the geometric mean, we get a rough average increase of 59% a year.”
Krantz reports, “If the average 59% annual growth rate of Apple’s stock continues, the company could be worth $1 trillion in as little as three years. That’s the optimistic case. If you use the analysts more conservative 23% price target for 2011 and apply that going into the future, then Apple will hit $1 trillion in six years.”
Read more in the full article here.