Apple Briefly Became World's First $3 Trillion Company

Apple briefly hit a market cap of $3 trillion during trading on Monday, the first company to ever achieve this valuation. After hitting the landmark valuation, Apple shares have traded down, leaving the iPhone giant just short of the historic value. The tech giant has tripled its valuation in the last four years.

CNBC reports that tech giant Apple reached a market cap of $3 trillion on Monday. The milestone comes after the tech giant has reported multiple record-breaking quarters of growth in all of its various product lines.

Tim Cook speaks in China ( NG HAN GUAN /Getty)

Apple’s share prices hit $182.86 on Monday pushing its market cap to $3 trillion. Shares closed up 2.5 percent at $182.01, falling just short of the $3 trillion valuation at the bell. Apple has tripled its valuation in under four years and analysts have high expectations for the company going forward.

Tim Cook’s massive tech company has seen annual growth across all of its products categories in its fourth-quarter earnings, boasting a revenue increase of 29 percent year-over-year. Apple’s biggest sales driver remains its popular iPhone product line but the company saw its services business grow by 25.6 percent year-over-year and revenue of $18 billion during the quarter.

Analysts have been impressed by Apple in recent years, with Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty raising the firm’s price target on Apple stock from $164 to $200. In a note on Monday, TFI Asset Management Limited analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted that Apple sold 27 million pairs of its newest model of AirPods over the Christmas season, driving 20 percent year-over-year growth for Apple’s wearables division during the quarter.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said on Sunday that Apple’s $3 trillion market cap is a “watershed movement” but the company still has room to grow. Ives currently values Apple’s services business at $1.5 trillion.

Apple became the first publicly-traded company in the U.S. to hit a $1 trillion market cap during intraday trading on August 2, 2018. Two years later on August 19, 2020 the company hit a valuation of $2 trillion.