With Thursday Close, Apple Just $9 Trillion from Becoming First $10 Trillion Company

Much was made of Apple’s run up to becoming the first company valued at a trillion dollars. On Thursday, August 2nd, 2018, the company became the first to both hit that magic number—and much more importantly, close above it. Shares of $AAPL ended the day at $207.39, a gain of $5.89 (+2.92%), on very heavy volume of 62.4 million shares trading hands.

For some context, those shares that were traded in just one day were worth $12.9 billion at the end of the day. Like, a bunch of men and women got together and handed each other $12.9 billion over the course of a few hours. It’s just crazy.

A Trillion Here, a Trillion There…

Apple has been on this massive share buyback tear, spending $20 billion of its own money snapping up shares in just the June quarter. In the March quarter, it spent another $23 billion, and it has plans to “aggressively” spend roughly $80 billion over the next three quarters or so.

Back in May, I argued that this epic share buyback effort could only mean that Apple is planning to release something that will move the needle, probably in the next 18-24 months. I hope that’s the case

But those share buybacks have also pushed the share price needed to hit a trillion dollar market cap ever higher. With the known share count of 4.83 billion as of July 20th, $AAPL needed to hit roughly $207.05 to hit the magic number. In reality, Apple has probably bought more shares since July 20th, so it’s really a little higher, but who cares because TRILLION DOLLARS, BABY!

::makes it rain::

Meh

John Martellaro made a point on Thursday’s TDO that a trillion dollar valuation doesn’t really mean anything in particular. And he’s right, mostly. We humans love nice round numbers, and a trillion dollars is mind boggling. But Apple was also the first company to be worth $993.8 billion, and no one celebrated that.

What Apple’s Stock Buyback Plan Should Tell You about the Future

But hey, we cleared it, and the stock closed above (more or less) that value, and that may prove to be a psychological barrier with Wall Street that has now been overcome. Time will tell, but if so, $AAPL could finally get some love from Wall Street.

Just $9 Trillion to Go

Which brings me to my title. If you believe that Apple will release new products that will have a material impact on the company, Apple is worth more than a trillion dollars. If you don’t, it’s worth less. But a trillion dollars is still just a number.

Here’s what Steve Wozniak beautifully had to say about it on Thursday:

Of course I’m proud of Apple, but I don’t measure the world by human simplifications like round numbers. A company is great because it is great.

So true, Mr. Wozniak, so true.

But, hey, that’s all yesterday’s news. Literally. Now I’m focused on tomorrow, because Apple is just $9 trillion away from being the first company valued at $10 trillion!

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.

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