Apple (AAPL), a.k.a. the U.S. economy, was hitting another all-time high Monday and pushing ever closer to $700 a share. The stock no one thinks will ever go down thanks to its regular roll-out of products we must have -- at the moment it's the iPhone 5 -- went above $699 earlier in the session, the best level it's ever reached.
Shares of Apple closed at $378.30 on Oct. 5, 2011, the day company co-founder Steve Jobs died, an event that pessimists thought might spell serious trouble for Apple's products and its stock. So far, that's not happened. Shares are up nearly 84% since then, according to FactSet data, and as noted, the goods keep coming and getting bought by us.
Here's a brief look at some of the factoids around Apple's journey higher since the death of its leader last fall:
- Trading days: 238
- Days the stock rose: 127, or 53.5% of the time
- Days the stock fell: 109, or 45.8% of the time
- Unchanged days: 2
- Average gain on up days: 1.43%
- Average decline on down days: 1.08%
- Best single-day percentage gain: Up 8.87% on April 25, 2012
- Worst single-day percentage decline: Down 5.59% on Oct. 19, 2011
- Longest winning streak: 8 sessions
- Longest losing streak: 5 sessions (four times)
- S&P 500 up days: 130, or 54.6% of the total, with an average gain of 0.81%
- S&P 500 down days: 106, or 44.5% of the total, with an average loss of 0.75%
- S&P 500 unchanged days: 2
Along the way, Apple has become the largest U.S. company measured by market capitalization (above $650 billion), and it's in that position by a mile, sporting a value that's more than $200 billion ahead of No. 2, Exxon Mobil (XOM). If Wall Street is right, its going to be worth even more. The average price target, FactSet says, is $778.91, about 11% above the just-hit all-time high. That would put Apple's market cap in the $725 billion range were it to reach that price.
Haven't we had enough Apple, you might ask? No. You can never have too much Apple. And we have the added advantage of knowing that the reader is in fact extremely interested in Apple. Whether that's for reasons of love, hate or mere curiosity, however, we can't know.
Going back to last Oct. 5, even though Apple clearly has been a strong performer, it's only the 15th-best member of the S&P 500. Homebuilder PulteGroup (PHM) leads the way, with a gain of 321%.
