Apple again becomes most valuable company

Apple again becomes most valuable company

A huge quarterly performance sends shares of the company up 6%.

Apple (AAPL +6.35%) has smashed through its former 52-week high to once again become the world's most valuable company. Will it stick this time?

Investors are still reeling from Apple's truly momentous earnings report for the final quarter of last year. A company of Apple's size isn't supposed to see profit more than double in a year to $13.1 billion. It's not supposed to see revenue soar 73% in that period either.

And Apple's cash holdings have grown to almost $98 billion. Its cash alone is worth more than all but 52 companies on Earth, notes Dennis Berman of The Wall Street Journal.

Apple shares rose more than 6% Wednesday to $447.62, placing its market value at $417 billion. That's higher than the $413 billion market value for Exxon Mobil (XOM -1.14%), which previously held the title of most valuable company.


Apple and Exxon have danced this dance before. Apple briefly replaced Exxon as most valuable company last August, and the two have been neck and neck at times since then. But there's an interesting difference between the two: "Exxon obviously sells a product that people need. Apple sells a product that people want," Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co., told the Associated Press last August.

So where does Apple go from here? Can the company maintain this unbelievable momentum? And what is Apple going to do with all that cash?

Analysts think there is still opportunity for Apple's stock price to continue rising. The iPhone demand in China is bonkers, and Apple has plenty of room there. Apple's still the only major player in the tablet market -- it says it doesn't even see any effect from Amazon's (AMZN -0.75%) Kindle Fire -- and the next version of the iPad is reportedly coming this year.

And then there are Mac sales, which rose 26% to hit a record in the same quarter that global PC sales saw a 1.4% decline.

If there ever was a company firing on all cylinders, Apple is it.

source: money.msn.com