Apple stock jumped 4.5% at market open today, following better-than-expected earnings and guidance for the forthcoming quarter. The stock broached $199 and has settled at $198 at time of publishing. Apple’s market cap is now above $970 billion dollars.
The company announced a record June quarter, with $53 billion revenue from 41.3 million iPhones, 11.6 million iPads and 3.7 million Macs.
As Apple continues to aggressively buy back its own stock, the jump in market cap was disproportionately smaller than the rise in share price. The company reported yesterday that it retired roughly 3% of available shares.
Market cap is share price multiplied by number of shares. Share repurchase naturally depresses the market cap stat. This means the 4.36% jump was largely offset, as far as market cap is concerned.
To reach the trillion-dollar market cap milestone, Apple stock will need to pass the ~$209 level assuming the company does not buy back any more shares.
As ever, the relevance of stock price on company performance is far from perfect. Tim Cook has said in interviews that he doesn’t even know what Apple’s stock price is at times. In its earning call, Apple reiterated the confidence in its current lineup, especially stellar custom response to the iPhone X, and once again teased a strong product pipeline in the wings.
For next quarter, Apple guided at the high end of estimates, with revenue predicted to hit $62 billion at the high end. Apple will unveil and launch the next-generation iPhone lineup in the September quarter, and it certainly seems to be expecting them to be a success.
