Update: Apple shares have now crossed the magic number that values the company at $1 trillion.
Apple has been performing incredibly well on the stock market for the past few days (NASDAQ:AAPL). While Yahoo Finance says that Apple is now worth over $1 trillion, this hasn’t yet happened. The company sent a filing to the SEC with an updated share count.
While everyone thought the magic number was $203.45, it was based on an outdated number. According to the filing, there are 4,829,926,000 Apple shares in circulation. Apple is going to hit $1 trillion when shares are worth $207.043 — so let’s say $207.05.
That’s why I posted a post earlier today claiming that Apple already hit $1 trillion — I’m sorry for the confusion. Shares are currently trading at $205.62. So Apple shares still need to jump by 0.7 percentage point to reach the market capitalization of $1 trillion.
Public companies don’t always have the same number of shares over time. Some companies, such as Apple, frequently buy back some of its own shares. It’s a vote of confidence as it means that you think your shares are going to keep going up in the future. It also reduces the number of outstanding shares, which mechanically increases the value of each share. Executives at bigger companies also get paid in shares. Sometimes, companies also issue new shares to raise capital.
For all these reasons, public companies need to send updated share counts. And it can take a bit of time before websites, such as Yahoo Finance, update their data set. In all cases, you should keep an eye on Apple shares today and see if they hit $207.05.