Apple surged over 10% to a record high on Friday 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, putting its market capitalisation at $1.82-trillion, according to the share count provided by Apple in a regulatory filing on Friday.
It was Apple’s largest one-day percentage gain since 13 March, and it added $172-billion in market capitalisation during the session, greater than the entire stock market value of Oracle.
Saudi Aramco, which had been the most valuable publicly listed company since going public last year, had a market capitalisation of $1.76-trillion as of its last close, according to Refinitiv data.
After Apple bought back $16-billion worth of shares in the June quarter, it had 4 275 634 000 outstanding shares, as of 17 July, according to the filing.
With Friday’s stock gain, Apple’s has surged about 45% year to date, with investors betting that it and other major US technology companies will emerge from the coronavirus pandemic stronger than smaller rivals.
Stock split
In its quarterly report, Apple announced a four-for-one stock split, with trading on a split-adjusted basis starting on 31 August. 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 $409.63 is more than $15 short of Friday’s closing price. — Reported by Subrat Patnaik and Noel Randewich, (c) 2020 Reuters
