On December 5th local time, as of the close of the US stock market, Apple's stock price rose 2.1% to $193.42, and its closing market value returned to above $3 trillion.
Last December, Apple's market value briefly hit the threshold of $3 trillion during trading, but did not stabilize at the close. In June of this year, it officially broke through the $3 trillion threshold.
Although Apple has reduced its total stock count through buybacks, its stock price has risen 52% so far this year due to the company's expansion of profits and a rebound in technology stocks. The report states that Apple's market value has increased by $940 billion this year, higher than Meta, the world's seventh largest company by market value ($815 billion).
Looking back at Apple's 3 trillion dollar market value journey, this company topped the world's highest market value for the first time in 2011, even though its market value was less than $340 billion at the time. Subsequently, driven by iconic consumer devices, Apple's stock price continued to rise and reached a market value of $1 trillion for the first time in mid-2018. In August 2020, it achieved a market value of $2 trillion. The other four companies with a market value exceeding $1 trillion were Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Microsoft.
In addition, the overall rise of US technology stocks this year is driven by the development of artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, Katie Huberty, Global Research Business Director from Morgan Stanley, stated that global investors are optimistic about Edge AI, which runs artificial intelligence on end-user devices such as smartphones, and expect the smartphone industry to see a recovery soon. But Apple rarely mentions artificial intelligence in its latest financial report, and these factors have not yet been reflected in Apple's stock price.
Analysts generally believe that Apple's overvaluation only has limited room for growth. According to the consensus ratings and target prices compiled by Seeking Alpha for Wall Street analysts, their consensus rating for Apple is "buy", with an average target price expectation of $196.48 and a maximum target price of $240, indicating that there is still a slight upward potential.
The third quarter report released by Apple in November showed that the company's quarterly revenue was $89.498 billion, a decrease of 0.72% from the same period last year of $90.146 billion, marking the fourth consecutive quarterly decline in revenue.
Apple also expects no revenue growth in the most important quarter, including December, which is the first full quarter of iPhone 15 sales. However, Apple CEO Cook is "very optimistic" about Apple's long-term prospects in the Chinese market and pointed out that iPhone revenue reached a historic high in the third quarter, insisting that iPhone 15 performed well in the Chinese market.
Multiple market research institutions believe that smartphone shipments will gradually recover in the coming quarters and may achieve moderate growth next year. In addition, next year Apple will also release the Vision Pro headset device, which is another new computing platform since the company launched the Apple Watch in 2014, and the outside world is full of expectations for it.