Apple Market Value Hits $500B
Apple’s market capitalization topped $500 billion yesterday, climbing to a mountain peak where few companies have ventured - and none have stayed for long.
Apple was already the world’s most valuable company. The gap between it and number 2 Exxon Mobil Corp. has widened rapidly in the past month, as investors have digested Apple’s report of blow-out holiday season sales of iPhones and iPads. And, more recently, Apple has raised investors’ hopes that it might institute a dividend.
The company’s market capitalization was near $506 billion in late-morning trading. On the day, shares rose $7.03, or 1.31 percent, to $542.44.
On Tuesday, the Cupertino, Calif., company sent out invites to reporters for an event in San Francisco next Wednesday, apparently to reveal its next iPad model. The launch of the new model was expected around this time, a year after the launch of the iPad 2.
Apple is in rare company. It is the sixth US corporation to reach the $500 billion milestone, and the only one to be worth that much at current prices.
Exxon, now worth $411 billion, was worth just over $500 billion for two short stretches at the end of 2007.