Apple is on target to becoming a trillion dollar company. Yes. You read that right. That’s Trillion with a ‘T’. That’s larger than the gross national product of Switzerland. Some current investors think the value of Apple Inc. has already surpassed the trillion dollar mark, but most experts on Wall Street say it will be a few short years before the company’s stock value reaches and surpasses that lauded point.
Some insiders say that as Apple’s stock market value inflated past $700 billion this week, shares of the technology company could and should be trading at $216 a piece, which would be equivalent to a market capitalization of about $1.26 trillion already. Apple’s shares have blown up over 65 percent in the past 12 months, something really quite amazing when you realize that the overall S&P 500 has only increased by 15 percent in the same time period.
Mark Mulholland, a portfolio manager for Matthew 25, agrees that Apple could already be surpassing the trillion dollar mark.
“It wouldn’t be outlandish for them to be at the $1 trillion market cap now.”
Mulholland, however, is in the minority. Most analysts think that it will take Apple another few years to pass the trillion threshold. With such magnanimous predictions about the company, it’s easy to forget that Apple sat upon the precipice of financial disaster in the late 1990’s. Of course, that was before the invention of the iPod – the one in a million (generations, that is) kind of product that changes the world. And with Apple, lightning struck twice – when you think about the iPhone – and perhaps thrice, if you’d include the iPad.
But what comes next for Apple? How will the tech company stay on top of the of the ever-changing global technology market? Will the company be able to keep on keeping on without cofounder Steve Jobs there to usher in its next version of life-altering tech?
Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Group, says that Apple will have to work hard to stay on top.
“The iPhone still has legs, but they have to keep innovating. There have to be new product categories.”
In January, Apple blew expected earnings out of the water with record iPhone sales, upping the median average target stock price to $134, which is 6 percent higher than it was yesterday, and much less than what some insiders think it should be. Those insiders, of course, are the ones that already put Apple at a trillion dollar company.
What do you think? Is Apple worth a trillion dollars? Will it be soon? Or will the mighty Apple stagnate and crumble before it’s worth that much?
[Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images]
