Apple shares hit a new all-time high; company now valued at $2.4 trillion

After peaking in late January, Apple's shares bottomed in March and since then have quietly formed a base from which it just broke out of on Wednesday. Closing at $144.57, Apple hit an all-time high during the day at $145.09 setting a new company record thus making Apple the world's most valuable publicly traded company with a value of $2.4 trillion dollars. The 52 week low of $89.14 took place close to a year ago at the peak of the pandemic.

On August 2nd, 2018, Apple became the first publicly traded firm to hit the trillion dollar valuation mark. Little over a year later, Apple became the first public firm valued at $2 trillion dollars. Over the past year, the stock has risen $49.23 or 51.64%. In late April Apple reported spectacular earnings for its fiscal second quarter with iPhone sales based on revenue up 65.5% on an annual basis, and iPad sales soaring 79% year-over-year based on sales.

Apple will report its fiscal third quarter earnings on July 27th. Investors often use the quarterly earnings report as a catalyst to rush into the stock or use the report as a signal to dump the stock. Despite the recent surge into the stock, for the year Apple trails Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon shares:

According to Gary Kaltbaum, Capital Management President, a lot of money is being invested in the tech sector. "The big money flows are heading right now into Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft with a smattering of others and I think it continues at least into earnings which is about three weeks away," Kaltbaum says.

Some analysts say that Apple is in the beginning of an iPhone super cycle with plenty of active users ready to upgrade to a new model. Over the next few years as 5G connectivity expands and gets better, many iPhone users will want to own the fastest model they can get their hands on. Additionally, Apple is expected to offer two headsets, one a mixed reality version for game players, and an AR variant that look like regular frames. Some analysts see the latter as replacing the iPhone as Apple's next big thing when launched as soon as 2023.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said back in 2019 that Apple's future products "will blow you away." He also said that he has "never been more optimistic" about the company. This sounds like good news for long term investors although one can never know for sure what the future will bring.