Cupertino-based tech giant Apple Inc. officially reached a new milestone by becoming the first American company to be worth more than $2 trillion – albeit briefly.
On Wednesday, Apple's stock prices surged to a high of $468.65 per share, sending its market valuation above $2 trillion. Prices quickly pulled back throughout the day, with the stock ending flat at $462.83 per share. Since the start of the year, Apple stock price has surged by close to 60 percent.
To make its shares much more affordable for average investors, Apple announced that it would be splitting its stock into four-for-one by the end of the month. Each stock will be priced at around $116 each, or a quarter of the price when the stock will be split. The value of the company will remain the same as the company has simply increased its shares available for trading.
Apple had reached an impressive milestone just two years after becoming a trillion-dollar company. While the past year had seen the stock grow consistently, this year has been more of a roller coaster ride.
The company's stock sunk in March as the U.S. economy fell into recession due to the economic effects of the trade war and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Over the next five months, Apple's stock prices more than doubled thanks to the strength of its continued sales even with the pandemic.
Apple isn't the only company to reach a $2 trillion market valuation. In December of last year, state-owned Saudi Aramco breached the milestone after it went public in Saudi Arabia. However, the oil and gas giant dipped below the $2 trillion market after global oil prices crashed earlier in the year. Apple has since passed Saudi Aramco's market valuation.
The recent surge in its stock has made its current CEO, Tim Cook, a newly minted billionaire. This is a significant milestone for the executive given that only a few CEOs have ever reached the billionaire status without having been a company's original founder.
Other American companies that are inching their way into the $2 trillion valuation territory include Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Both Amazon and Microsoft are now worth around $1.6 trillion, while Google is worth slightly above $1 trillion.
