Just how valuable is Apple? $776.7 billion, which makes it the most valuable publicly traded company, ever.
Monday’s opening stock price of $149.03 per share put the company at the top of the market, passing its previous high of $774.7 billion in February 2015, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Apple’s stock prices have hit records multiple times since the 2015 high, but since Apple keeps repurchasing its own shares (there are 5.21 billion shares outstanding) today marks the first time the stock opened at a new market cap high.
This puts Apple in a prime spot in the runup to its tenth-anniversary iPhone, widely rumored to be called the iPhone 8, which is expected to be unveiled in September of this year. Although Apple sold slightly fewer iPhones than the year before (50.8 million versus 51.2 million units), it made more money on the back of the pricier iPhone 7 Plus.
Apple CEO Tim Cook went on the record to say he blames frequent iPhone 8 rumors for the slowdown in iPhone sales, which could mean that buyers are just holding out for the next iPhone’s release. So all this iPhone 8 speculation could potentially help Apple’s future stock if an even pricier iPhone 8 flies off the shelf.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.