Apple hits $1 trillion valuation mark

Apple $1trn valuation follows better-than-expected third quarter results

Apple hit the $1 trillion market capitalisation benchmark late yesterday, becoming the first Western company to achieve such a valuation.

And, despite dipping below the $1 trillion mark shortly after, the company's stock price rallied to end the day valued at just over.

The company's share price was pushed up this week following the announcement of better-than-expected third quarter financial results late on Tuesday, when the company posted net income up 32 per cent to $11.5 billion and revenues up 17 per cent to $53.3 billion.

In particular, investors were buoyed by the disclosure that the average iPhone selling price has reached $724 - against an anticipated $694 - pushed up by the popularity of the £999 Apple iPhone X flagship smartphone that many had written off shortly after its launch.

The popularity of the iPhone X helped to push up sales of iPhones in revenue terms, although they only increased by one per cent in terms of unit sales.

Apple's Services unit, which includes iTunes and the App Store, saw sales increase 37 per cent to $9.5bn. Apple Music sales leaped 50 per cent on the year. Even Apple Watch sales were up, according to Cook, by 40 per cent or more.

Indeed, Cook had hailed what he described as "Apple's best June quarter ever" and its "fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth", claiming that the results had been driven by "strong sales of iPhone, Services, and Wearables".

He also hinted that the company is planning some big launches of both products and services, which may come as soon as this autumn. In particular, long-standing Apple Mac users are looking forward to overdue refreshes to the Mac desktop line-up and entry-level MacBook Air laptop.

An iPhone 9, iPhone 11 and iPhone 11+ are also rumoured to be in the pipeline. The iPhone 11 will be the successor to the iPhone X.

On Wednesday morning, the company had been valued at $935 billion, against $867 billion for Amazon and $946 billion for Alphabet, the holding company responsible for Google.

Apple, though, isn't the world's first $1 trillion company. That accolade, if you could call it that, belongs to oil company PetroChina, which achieved a $1 trillion valuation shortly after it floated on the Shanghai stock exchange in 2007.

However, it has since lost around $800 million in value, partly due to the impact of the global financial crisis, but also following the fall in Chinese stock prices in 2015 and 2016. It is currently valued at $206 billion.