Apple approaches $775 billion market cap, twice as large as Exxon

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By Larry Banks

Apple closed yesterday with a market cap of $774.7 billion, rising to a new 52-week high of $133 per share.

Apple reaches record high…again

Earlier this month, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker became the first US company in history to achieve a market cap of $700 billion. Now Apple continues to soar even higher, rising more than 20% since the start of the year.

In terms of market cap, that makes Apple worth twice as much as Exxon after the oil company’s shares fell one percent yesterday to close at $89.01, with a market cap of around $374 billion. Apple in fact passed Exxon as the world’s largest company in 2011 with a market cap of $346.74 billion.

Apple Cash

As stated by The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s doubling of value over Exxon is a very rare event, one that was only seen last by IBM 30 years ago, when between 1984 to 1985 IBM’s value was more than twice the next-largest company, which also just happened to be Exxon.

Apple’s stellar performance comes after the company posted record profits at the end of the last financial quarter, largely on the back of huge sales for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. For the last three months of the year, Apple managed to achieve $18 billion in profit on revenue of $74.6 billion.

And in November last year, many hedge funds predicted that Apple could become the first company in history to see its market cap hit the $1 trillion barrier, which today is just a 30% reach away.

Apple has consistently surprised its critics who have suggested there is little room for growth in today’s saturated smartphone market, however Apple has proven time and again that in markets such as China, there is still plenty of room left to increase sales and profits.

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