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Apple stock at another all-time high, market cap 4th in US

by Chris Rawson Mar 23rd 2010 at 8:00PM

Apple's stock rose to another record high earlier today, reaching $228.36 at market close. That's almost another $10 above the record high it set back on March 5, which translates into nearly nine billion dollars in market capitalization gained in less than three weeks.

Apple's market cap is so high that only three publicly-traded US companies have market caps higher than Apple's: Exxon, Microsoft, and a little retailer called Wal-Mart. Apple will probably never catch up to Exxon's market cap, which exceeds Apple's by more than $100 billion, and it has another $55 billion to go before it can surpass Microsoft -- not likely, but not impossible. Apple's market cap is within striking distance of Wal-Mart's, however, with only about $5.5 billion more to go before Apple surpasses the market value of the world's largest retailer.


What's even more interesting than the companies still above Apple are all the companies below it. Apple's market cap exceeds Google's by more than $30 billion, and 1980s rival IBM is nearly $40 billion below Apple's value. Even more telling than that: in terms of market capitalization, Apple is now worth more than Nokia, RIM, Sony, Motorola, Palm, Dell, and Adobe -- combined.

Apple's all-time low market value was back in 1982, when it was a mere $640 million. For perspective, that's more than $37 million below Palm's current market value (before adjusting for inflation, naturally), and Palm is widely expected to go belly-up any day now. 28 years later, Apple has grown to occupy a position in the market that I doubt anyone would have dreamed of even only five years ago. Whatever else you might think of Apple, one thing is undeniable: someone at the company is doing something right, because they're raking in money like almost no other corporation anywhere.

Disclosure: I own absolutely no Apple stock whatsoever, but I wish I could tell the 2004 version of me to go buy some so I could retire next year.

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Apple's stock rose to another record high earlier today, reaching $228.36 at market close. That's almost another $10 above the record high...
 

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Tiago

Apple is 4th in the US, 7th in the world. The other companies that are still ahead of Apple are: Industrial and Commercial Bank of Chin (3rd), BHP Billiton and PetroChina, in 3rd, 4th and 6th places, respectively.

March 24 2010 at 11:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ChuckB

"Interesting article, but so frustrating to read without actually knowing what Apple's market cap currently is, to put the comparisons into perspective. According to Google finance, AAPL market cap is currently about $207B."

Go here:

www.wolframalpha.com

and run this query

apple marketcap vs microsoft marketcap

Change the graph to the 10 year view and you'll see the astonishing resurgence of Apple.

March 24 2010 at 10:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stu

Interesting article, but so frustrating to read without actually knowing what Apple's market cap currently is, to put the comparisons into perspective. According to Google finance, AAPL market cap is currently about $207B.

March 24 2010 at 1:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
swright

The real question is what would happen to Market Cap if something was to happen to Mr. Jobs?? Don't get me wrong I hope Steve goes no where soon, but without him the Market Cap would drop like a rock. Can't say that about and single person at Exxon, MS or Wal-Mart.

March 24 2010 at 1:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to swright's comment
CHRiS

I think we got a good preview of that when he left for half a year for his surgery. It went down, but then back up, way backup before he even came back officially.

March 24 2010 at 1:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
balls

One thing is certain, based on stock price alone, apple is definitely doing something right.

Things to be aware of:

The war with Google will cost them nerdshare.
The US/China tradewar will cost them in manufacturing.

March 23 2010 at 10:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bobics

Actually the "natural" thing to do would be to adjust for inflation, otherwise you're comparing apples to oranges and the comparison is meaningless.

March 23 2010 at 9:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Bushnell

Sounds good to me. I've owned my Apple stock for quite a while, so the higher it goes up the better.

March 23 2010 at 8:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ChuckB

"Apple will probably never catch up to Exxon's market cap, which exceeds Apple's by more than $100 billion, and it has another $55 billion to go before it can surpass Microsoft -- not likely, but not impossible"

Apple will pass Microsoft's market cap in 1-2 years. This has been developing for some time and is still continuing.

March 23 2010 at 8:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tuaw,com

In fact, very briefly last week, AAPL also surpassed WMT in market capitalization (but since then WMT has done well). Not that these numbers are all that meaningful.

March 23 2010 at 8:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Roe

I believe you mean 28 years later. 18 Years after 1982 would be 2000. Unless you meant 18 years after 1992, which seems to make more sense to me.

March 23 2010 at 8:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Roe's comment
Chris Rawson

Ugh, yeah, you're right. Fixed it. Moments like these are why I switched to an English major.

March 23 2010 at 8:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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