Remember when Apple (AAPL) bulls said the stock could be trading for $800 a share before the June stock split? Seemed pretty outlandish. Not anymore.
Shares of Apple Monday at the open pushed above $114.53. If you adjust for the 7-for-1 split on June 9, 2014, that makes the stock worth $801.71 a share, says Howard Silverblatt of S&P Dow Jones Indices. Shares currently are trading down a bit Monday, off $0.21 to $113.98. That equals $797.86 pre-split.
Apple’s recent melt-up this year has been astounding. Shares are up more than 40% this year — as investors rush into the stock amid strong sales of its latest smartphone.
Now the latest “crazy talk” is Apple becoming the first company worth a trillion dollars. That too might seem ambitious considering the company is currently worth $669 billion. Getting to a trillion dollar market value is only 49% away, which isn’t that far below what the stock has done this year. On a per-share basis, that’s just $167 a share.
Analysts aren’t currently seeing much a rapid rise. The average 18-month price target on the stock is $117. But it’s easy to see why Apple bulls think that analysts are playing it too safe, given how aggressively the stock is racing higher. Analysts have been playing catch up all year.