Apple on the brink of becoming world’s first trillion-dollar company
Shares of iPhone and computer maker Apple surged six percent after the company reported solid third-quarter results. The corporation closed the trading session just shy of the $1 trillion in market capitalization.
Apple stock closed at $201.50, slightly below the intraday high of $201.76. Shareholders had been seeking a share price of $203.45 to make the company the first publicly traded in the US worth $1 trillion. The current price left Apple less than $10 billion short of the milestone, with a market cap of over $990 billion.
Apple sold nearly the same number of iPhones during the three months ending in June as it did a year prior, but managed to boost sales and profits via increased sales of higher-priced devices. According to the quarterly report, the company’s profit reached $11.5 billion, up 32 percent from the same period a year ago.
At the same time, Apple’s Services category, which includes App Store, Apple Pay, and AppleCare, reached $9.5 billion in sales from April through June – 30 percent higher against the same period a year ago. The average selling price for an iPhone was set at $724 during the quarter, up from $606 in the third quarter of 2017.
The corporation cheered up investors with an expected boost in sales for the upcoming quarter, as Apple is set to release the next iPhone in the fall. The company expects sales for the upcoming quarter to total between $60 and $62 billion, which is well above analysts’ projections.
Apple’s strong report comes amid deep concerns voiced by investors over the US tech sector. The so-called FAANG stocks, which include Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google parent Alphabet, started the week with a collective plunge.
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