Apple on Monday became the first company in the world to be worth more than $3 trillion. To put that in context, if Apple were a country, it’d be the fifth largest economy in the world, trailing Germany but ahead of the United Kingdom. Apple’s market capitalization first touched $1 trillion in August 2018 and passed $2 trillion two years later in August 2020. It took just 16 months for the iPhone maker to add another $1 trillion to its market value. The stock posted impressive gains of more than 40 percent over the past year outpacing the broader market, which has gained around 29 percent over the same time frame. The company’s shares hit $182.86 to reach the milestone in midday trading on Monday. Investors have rewarded Apple CEO Tim Cook’s efforts to expand into new products like AirPods and streaming service Apple TV+ while growing the dominance of money-makers like the App Store. Since Cook took over after Steve Jobs resigned in 2011, the stock has rallied a whopping 1,400 percent. With Apple’s rapid ascent over the past decade, many investors have come to view the stock as a safe-haven play. Amid wild market volatility sparked by uncertainty tied to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, investors flocked to Apple, sending shares up some sharply while the broader market struggled. With the company now worth more than $3 trillion, only one company remains in the US’ so-called $2 trillion club: Microsoft, which commands a market valuation of about $2.56 trillion. Alphabet, Amazon and Tesla are all worth over $1 trillion. Big Tech stocks have surged over the past 20 months since the pandemic started as workplaces went remote and Americans splurged on tech products. In Apple’s most recent quarter, the company posted revenue of $84.85, up 29 percent from the same period a year earlier, with iPhone sales up a whopping 47 percent over that period. Despite its recent surge in value, some analysts think the stock has room to run, with Morgan Stanley naming it a top pick for 2022, saying that it’s anticipated launch of augmented and virtual reality hardware next year will boost revenue. “The combination of a strong, loyal customer base and the upcoming launch of AR/VR products positions AAPL for a re-rating in 2022,” Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty wrote Thursday. Huberty has a $200 price target on Apple stock.
