“It was a sign of how the corporate world has changed when Apple Inc. in late February became twice as valuable as the next-closest publicly held U.S. company, doubling the market cap of Exxon Mobil,” Kevin Kingsbury reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Now comes the latest indignity: Helped on by oil’s price slump, Apple’s market cap on Monday surpassed the combined total of Exxon, Chevron Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has had its own earnings troubles at it moves to put more money into its stores and workforce. As of Monday’s close, Apple was valued at $657.6 billion, according to FactSet, versus $650.8 billion combined for Exxon ($302.2 billion), Wal-Mart ($206.1 billion) and Chevron ($142.5 billion).”
“The three companies are among the worst performers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year. Combined, the trio have shed nearly $200 billion of market value since early May,” Kingsbury reports. “The drop says as much about their fall from grace as it does about Apple. Indeed, the moment when Apple lapped Exxon back in February proved to be about the peak of Apple’s stock, and it’s no longer double all others thanks to the summer’s surge for Google Inc.GOOGL +1.91%Exxon now ranks fifth in market cap among U.S.-listed firms, Wal-Mart is 12th and Chevron is roughly 25th.
“Apple has seen its stock rebound some the past week in the wake of its latest product unveilings, which of course includes refreshed iPhones,” Kingsbury reports. “And unlike the other three companies, Apple has lots of pricing power and fat margins to boot.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Behold what Steve jobs hath wrought and upon which Tim Cook has lavishly built.
And a meaningless comment from a meaningless person. See how that works?
I wonder if a lot of those companies’ investors have taken a bite of Apple or did they all run to the wonder companies of Amazon, Google and Netflix which are companies said to be guaranteed success in getting huge share price gains.
Q) What sort of idiot would claim that investors have no confidence in Apple’s management when Apple has over the last few years risen to exceed the value of these three industry giants combined?
A) An analyst
The stock has not risen because investors have confidence in the management, it has risen because the profit has gone up and the cash pile has gone up and the number of outstanding shares has gone down and there is a dividend. The price of the stock relative to the profits has actually gone down.
By the way I think the stock buyback and the dividend were both very bad ideas, more the stock buyback. Both were foolish decisions on Apple’s part.