Apple Becomes Most Valuable Publicly-Traded Stock Ever

[MacRumors]

Milestones for Apple's stock are falling rapidly in recent days, with another strong performance today pushing Apple past Microsoft for the title of most valuable publicly-trade stock ever, a distinction Microsoft has held since December 1999.




Microsoft's market capitalization peaked on December 30, 1999, reaching an intraday high of $119.94 per share. With Microsoft having documented 5,160,024,593 outstanding shares as of October 31, 1999 in its quarterly earnings report, the company would have had a market capitalization of $618.89 billion on December 30.

Apple's most recent quarterly filing listed 937,406,000 outstanding shares as of July 13, 2012, and with the company's stock price hitting $660.73 today, its market capitalization reached $619.37 billion.

While Apple now holds the all-time market capitalization record in terms of raw numbers, accounting for inflation would still allow Microsoft to retain the title by a fairly wide margin. In inflation-adjusted terms, Microsoft's $618.89 market capitalization in December 1999 would be equivalent to roughly $842.5 billion in today's dollars.

Apple's market capitalization title is also subject to several other caveats, perhaps most notably being PetroChina's trillion dollar market cap it achieved when it launched for trading on the Shanghai stock exchange in 2007. That figure comes with its own qualifications, however, as PetroChina is a government-dominated firm that saw only 2% of its shares being made available on the Shanghai exchange. Trading in PetroChina shares on the Hong Kong exchange and American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange never supported the trillion dollar valuation the company received on the Shanghai exchange.

Update: Apple's stock closed at $665.15 today, giving the company a market capitalization of $623.5 billion.

Article Link: Apple Becomes Most Valuable Publicly-Traded Stock Ever

[nepalisherpa]

I wish I could go back in time and buy a bunch of Apple's stocks!

[iBreatheApple]

Congrats Apple!

[pandamonia]

One big bubble ready to burst.

[bbeagle]

.... but but but that's because ummm.... there is no Android stock on the stock market, and ummmm... because if there was, Apple stock would probably be like NEGATIVE 660 in value instead of positive 600. Yep, that's the ticket... and it's all fanboy sheep who buy the stock anyways, and there will be a crash and correction soon, and... and....

[sbrhwkp3]

Too bad Steve didn't make it to see this day. I'm sure he'd be beaming with pride. One hell of a success story.

[miles01110]

Practical value of this news story: none. Like every other stock milestone announcement.

[chrmjenkins]

It's mind boggling to think that, at the time, Microsoft was almost exclusively a software company and its most well received OSes of late, XP and Windows 7, hadn't even been launched. We're talking Windows 98 and 98 SE here

Originally Posted by miles01110

Practical value of this news story: none. Like every other stock milestone announcement.

The practical value of nearly every story on here is 0. It's a rumors site, not a gardening how-to site.

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by chrmjenkins

It's mind boggling to think that, at the time, Microsoft was almost exclusively a software company and its most well received OSes of late, XP and Windows 7, hadn't even been launched. We're talking Windows 98 and 98 SE here

Yes, the actual inflation-adjusted Microsoft milestone is the real part of this article. Mind-boggling stuff.

[mono1980]

Originally Posted by nepalisherpa

I wish I could go back in time and buy a bunch of Apple's stocks!

I think everyone can agree!

[cxny]

got in at $11.21 but only have 50 shares left

[applesith]

Awesome Apple!

Here we go with all the "if only i bought/i want a time machine". We've all heard all of it!

[chrmjenkins]

Originally Posted by cxny

got in at $11.21 but only have 50 shares left

Shucks, you only have $33,020.50 in apple stock, a 5891% return on investment.

[babazaroni]

I bought last week. Already made enough for a new iphone and plan for a year. Thinking about shorting after the announcement.

[Colpeas]

Yep, high time to sell.

[pgiguere1]

I was afraid it might have been already too late when I bought stocks at $373 last year, I'm glad I did now!

[Glideslope]

Originally Posted by pandamonia

One big bubble ready to burst.

It's no Bubble Johnny. " The Assimilation Continues".

[madsci954]

Originally Posted by cxny

got in at $11.21 but only have 50 shares left

First World Wall Street Problems

[boronathan]

You mean to tell me that apples 8 billon dollars of profit WASN'T a sign that they were failing.

Go Apple! And go me! Lol

[jkaz]

i wonder how relative strength of the economy in 2012 compares to 1999

[zorinlynx]

S-.. sSssss... Ssssell. Sell... I dunno.

I'm getting nervous that this might be a bubble. I got in around $320, with a few additional buy-ins along the way. How long can this really keep up? It feels like a bubble.

I'd be pissed off if I sold it all, only for it to get to $700, then $800.... I guess that's the nature of investing though.

[pandamonia]

Originally Posted by Glideslope

It's no Bubble Johnny. " The Assimilation Continues".

Yet its these comments that normally prove a bubble is here.

[soup4you2]

Originally Posted by babazaroni

I bought last week. Already made enough for a new iphone and plan for a year. Thinking about shorting after the announcement.

Enjoy the tax's if you sell it that fast.

[Z400Racer37]

Apple has less than 10% market share in every single one of their major revenue streams (spare their shrinking iPod line). ipods hit about 70% market share. microsoft hit 95% market share in OS's. theres no reason why apple cant hit at least 70% in all of their markets, since they're the only ones who are excellent at software/device integration/innovation/curation. add a tv to the mix, theyll edge out competition that much more surely. <10% market share, should be no reason not to hit at least 70%. that's 7x higher than the stock is now.

[IJ Reilly]

Originally Posted by chrmjenkins

It's mind boggling to think that, at the time, Microsoft was almost exclusively a software company and its most well received OSes of late, XP and Windows 7, hadn't even been launched. We're talking Windows 98 and 98 SE here

True, but this was also during the tech stock bubble, when a lot of companies with no actual products let alone any intrinsic value were racking up huge market caps. Microsoft was making money during this time period, and lots of it. It's also worth keeping in mind that Microsoft's fortunes have never really been tied to releasing new versions of Windows. With the PC market essentially captured, their success was a function of growing PC sales, and that was happening in spades during the late '90s.