Wall Street likes round numbers — and the fact that Apple, the tech juggernaut, touched an $800 billion market capitalization. This was a first for a company in the United States, several news outlets, including CNBC, reported. That came as the stock touched $153.70 a share, backing off on Monday to $153.
The company’s shares have hit these highs in the wake of earnings last week, where the firm had mixed iPhone results, with lighter volume than had been expected, though with higher average selling prices. As noted by CEO Tim Cook, the lag may be coming ahead of the next big iPhone launch, which is slated for the fall.
CNBC stated that analysts have taken their price targets on Apple up several dozen times in May alone, and the highest price target is $202, which, as carried by Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White, would imply a market cap of about $1 trillion. The stock also gained ground on the news that Warren Buffett said he liked the firm.
In the meantime, Drexel’s White stated to CNBC that “what we’re starting to see here are dark clouds around this valuation of Apple — which has been with the company for several years — starting to part ways.” And, in getting to his price target, the analyst stated that “our numbers are actually pretty conservative going into what I think will be a big cycle.”