AAPL sets another record: $700 in after-hours trading
I've been preaching AAPL for as long as I've been long on the stock -- or about 10 years now. In that time Apple has gone from being just another PC manufacturer to being the most valuable company on the planet and the master of the mobile handset world. Only three years ago, the stock was sitting at a low around $200. But just this calendar year alone the stock has blasted through the $400, $500, and $600 barriers (it crossed $400 in 2011 before falling again).
Today the stock has hit another milestone: $700 a share in after-hours trading.
The $700 share price now gives AAPL an almost $656 billion evaluation. Crossing the $700 can be seen one of two ways: response to Apple selling 2 million iPhone 5's in just 24 hours or just the natural trajectory of the stock (I tend to view it the second way since the stock went up less than 1.5% on the iPhone 5 news today).
While $700 a share sounds like a lot, most analysts put the stock at a $850-950 range and some see it hitting $1,100 a share in the next 12 months. That's mainly due to the still increasing smartphone market and the nascent tablet market -- not to mention AAPL is still only trading with a 16.45PE (Amazon, on the other hand, has a PE of 314).
As I said back in 2009, the sky does indeed seem to be the limit.
Disclaimer: This author owns shares in AAPL. Opinions in this post are those of the author only and should not be considered as investment advice.
