A truly golden Apple: Tech giant’s value reaches $3 trillion – again

NEW YORK — Apple is once again worth $3 trillion, the only company ever to reach that milestone.

Shares rose 1% Friday to hit a record $191.34. With 15.7 billion shares outstanding, that stock price pushed Apple to its historic market value.

Apple has been here once before: On January 3, 2022, Apple hit the $3 trillion mark during intraday trading, but it failed to close there. If Apple closes above the $3 trillion mark, it will become the only company ever to achieve that feat.

[It did so, closing Friday at $193.97, up  $4.38 (2.31%). Market value: $3.05 trillion, according to Nasdaq data.]

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The company’s stock closed Thursday at a record high share price for the third-straight day, but it merely budged 0.2% higher. Apple easily surpassed the $190.73 level it needed to break $3 trillion Friday.

The sky-high valuation for the tech giant comes on the heels of its risky launch of the Apple Vision Pro earlier this month and a stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings report in May – even though sales and profit slumped.

The Vision Pro, which will go on sale next year, impressed tech journalists who got an early preview of the augmented reality device. But it is entering a nascent market with little mainstream consumer adoption. Apple plans to charge a hefty $3,499 for its headset, which currently has limited apps and experiences, and requires users to stay tethered to a battery pack the size of an iPhone.

Apple’s (AAPL) stock has skyrocketed nearly 46% this year, boosted by a broader surge in Big Tech stocks as investors have jumped onto the AI bandwagon. Nvidia (NVDA) leads the S&P 500 with a 181% jump this year, followed by Meta (META) at 137%.

This year’s stock market success for Apple comes in sharp contrast to 2022. At the start of 2023, Apple’s market cap fell below $2 trillion in trading for the first time since early 2021.

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