This first in stock market history was only short-lived, the title having lost a little ground thereafter.
Apple crossed the symbolic threshold of $ 3 trillion in capitalization on Monday, a first in stock market history, which testifies to the success of a group whose value has almost increased tenfold since the departure of the iconic Steve Jobs.
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This incursion was only of short duration, the space of a few seconds a little before 8 pm, the title having lost a little ground thereafter. Around 8:10 p.m., the action was up 2.60% to $ 182.19. AAPL, the initials for the title listed on the Nasdaq electronic stock exchange, weighed, at this point in the session, $ 2,988 billion.
Microsoft is the only other company in the world with a stock market value of over $ 2 trillion. In early August 2018, it became the first company to pass the $ 1 trillion mark, 38 years after its IPO, Apple only needed two years to cross $ 2 trillion, then 16 months to go beyond of 3,000 billion.
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Disappointing results
Nothing seems to be able to stop the progression of Apple’s price, which however disappointed analysts during its last quarter, completed at the end of September and published at the end of October. The shortage of silicone, an essential component in the manufacture of microchips, as well as disruptions linked to the coronavirus at the group’s subcontracting factories in Southeast Asia, have cost Apple around six billion dollars in sales. When presenting these results, CEO Tim Cook explained that he expected the impact to be at least as significant in the following quarter, which covers the end of year holidays. Despite these difficulties, the firm still expected to achieve record sales during the quarter from October to December, the first of its 2021/22 fiscal year.
Some 45 years after its founding on the idea of the consumer microcomputer, Apple is a company driven by iPhone sales. Its flagship product, launched in 2007, generated some 191.9 billion dollars in sales during its 2020/21 fiscal year (October to September), by far a record.
Great success for the services business
Ten years ago, critics worried about the departure of co-founder Steve Jobs, forced to let go of the reins in early 2011 a few months before his death on October 5 of the same year. His successor, Tim Cook, did not have, said his detractors, the charisma, the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship or the marketing genius of Steve Jobs, capable of inventing Apple, then reinventing it at the end of the years. 90s.
But this austere-looking engineer quickly won over Wall Street, with his clear strategic directions, his pragmatism and his decision to develop Apple’s content and services offer. The services business, which ranges from Apple Music to the Apple TV + streaming service, including iCloud data and image storage and the Apple Pay virtual payment terminal, has exploded, to the point of tripling its turnover. last five years. With $ 68 billion in revenue in 2020/21, this service center represents almost 20% of the group’s turnover in Cupertino (California).
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This new growth engine, added to the success of the iPhone 13, launched in September and which has just finished two months in a row at the top of smartphone sales in China, should take the value of the Californian giant even further, according to Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities analyst. Even the assaults it has been subjected to in recent years from competitors or regulators, who blame it for its closed and exclusive ecosystem, do not seem to affect the popularity of the title with investors.
The group is, in fact, subject to a procedure of the European Union to have “Distorted competition” through its app store App Store, which typically charges app publishers 15-30% commission. In September, a US federal judge banned Apple from forcing publishers to use its payment system for their applications, while ruling that the iPhone maker did not have an illegal monopoly. The group recently made some concessions, to allow publishers to bypass this payment system, under certain conditions.