Shares Of Apple Close At All-Time High Price

Today shares of Apple closed at an all time high price of 133.29. Apple is already the largest publicly traded company in the world when measured by market cap. Their market cap(combined price of all outstanding shares) currently sits at 697.73 billion.

The single biggest driver behind the surge in share price is the iPhone, which currently makes up two-thirds of revenue for the entire company. Their revenue totaled 215.63 billion in their fiscal year ending in September 2016. It’s hard to imagine that a single product has helped Apple become the behemoth company that it is. The iPhone is one of the most successful consumer products of all time, and is on pace to reach 980 billion in sales in only ten years since initial launch! Below is a 5-year chart of Apple’s share price:

From a basic value viewpoint, I think there are certainly things to like about Apple right now. The P/E is only at 15.96. There surely isn’t a chance of stellar growth that a smaller company can offer, we are talking about the biggest publicly traded company in the world after all. How much more can it really grow right? Yet at the same time, their economic moat is fairly wide. Their brand is global and not going to be forgotten any time soon. They are awash in cash, which can hopefully pay for steadily increasing dividends as well as expansion. CEO Tim Cook is optimistic about corporate tax reform this year which should suggest more capital being put to use. Let's not forget that last year Berkshire Hathaway started acquiring shares in Apple for the first time in Buffet's 50+ year reign as CEO of Berkshire.

I’m not saying the company is necessarily undervalued right now, but if one were to invest in Apple in the very long run, I would see it as a conservative and relatively safe long term play. This means that I have no clue what the share price will be in one, two, or five years, but their enormous economic machine is chugging along in such a way that anyone who tags along for the ride will be decently rewarded if their time horizon is at least ten years or more.

Sources:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/13/apple-shares-hit-all-time-closing-high.html
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AAAPL&ei=y4eiWAGHutgGpv-F6Ak
https://www.macstories.net/news/tim-cook-apple-ceo/
https://www.yankodesign.com/2016/02/05/iphone-7-bigger-screen-same-size/
http://www.techinsider.net/apple-inc-aapl-accepting-bitcoins-will-be-a-game-changer-matt-miller/115300.html