Apple
is now worth $3 trillion as of the stock market open in New York on Friday, a milestone for the iPhone maker and wider technology sector.
Apple
stock (ticker: AAPL) jumped 1.5% in early Friday trading, opening at $191.78, above the $190.74 level that marks a market capitalization of $3 trillion. Apple’s market value is now greater than that of the bottom 202 companies in the
S&P 500
index combined. The company is also worth more than each of the following S&P 500 sectors individually: Consumer Staples, Energy, Utilities, Materials, and Real Estate.
While Apple briefly topped a $3 trillion valuation in intraday trading in early 2022, it has never opened above that level before, nor has it closed above it—putting pressure on the stock to do so on Friday. But there is reason to believe the stock can keep rising.
The tech giant has already had a remarkable rally to start the year, up about 47% in 2023 and beating the performances of the
Dow Jones Industrial Average,
S&P 500,
and tech-heavy
Nasdaq
—up 3.5%, 15.5%, and 31.5%, respectively.
It is “a historic day for the tech sector,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a Friday note. “The Apple bears and skeptics continue to scratch their heads as many have called for Apple’s ‘broken growth story’ this year in a tougher backdrop to which we firmly believe the exact opposite has happened.”
And the stock is still good for gains, according to Wall Street, with the shares garnering an average rating of Buy among almost 40 analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Analysts at Citi joined the chorus of bulls on Thursday, initiating coverage of Apple with a Buy rating and $240 target price, implying gains of 27% from Thursday’s closing price of $189.59.
“Apple is navigating the macro slowdown and inflationary pressure on consumer spending by consistently gaining share from Android phones, we see ~30% further upside potential from current levels,” the analysts wrote in a note.
“We believe the Street is underestimating continued gross margin expansion,” they added, noting that a shift in iPhone sales toward the premium segment, further share gains in China and India, continued self-design of chips, and higher margin services sales mix were all tailwinds.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
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