For me, when it comes to commercial success and financial firepower, there isn’t a company on the planet that can hold a candle to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Even as a financial writer, I find the numbers around Apple stock and the company simply extraordinary.
Even after legendary co-founder Steve Jobs died in October 2011, the consumer technology company continued to go from strength to strength under replacement CEO Tim Cook.
Here are five fantastic facts about the firm and its shares.
1. It’s almost equal in size to the London stock market
At the current Apple share price of $173.09, the group is valued at an enormous $2.72trn. That works out at around £2.19trn.
In comparison, the total value of the UK’s FTSE All-Share index is around £2.4trn. That’s only 9.6% larger than the American giant. Holy moly.
2. The stock is close to its record high
In late 2021, I repeatedly warned of a huge bubble being blown in the US tech sector. Sure enough, tech shares plunged in 2022, with Apple duly following suit.
At its all-time high, Apple hit an intra-day peak of $182.63 on 4 January 2022. It then crashed, falling to an intra-day post-peak low of $124.17 on 3 January 2023 — almost exactly a year later.
At its 2023 low, the share price had plunged by 32) from its record high. It has since staged a serious comeback, leaping by 39.4% in under five months.
At today’s price, the stock is just 5.2% below its 2022 peak. Wow.
3. Its dividend is gigantic
At the current share price, the stock offers a dividend yield of 0.56%. This may be tiny when compared with the 5%+ cash yields found within the UK’s FTSE 100 index, but the payout itself is massive.
In fact, the cash return to Apple shareholders this year will be around $15.2bn. By any standards, that’s a huge mountain of money.
4. These shares trade on a premium rating
Currently, the US S&P 500 index trades on a multiple of around 18.6 times earnings. In contrast to this, Apple shares have a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.4.
In other words, the stock is valued at around 1.6 times the wider US stock market. This higher rating reflects the strong growth in revenues and earnings the group has delivered in previous years.
5. It has made many millionaires
Apple boss Tim Cook owns over three million shares, valued at over $520m. But many other ordinary investors have become wealthy though buying the stock at the right time.
For example, I have a friend who, along with two work colleagues, invested £10,000 each into Apple shares in 1997, when the company’s valuation was a mere $2bn.
Today, Apple’s market value is roughly 1,360 times what it was back then. In other words, my chum’s £10k stake is now worth £13.6m. But that’s not all, because dividends and a weaker pound could have boosted the value of this holding above £25m. Absolutely incredible, agreed?
Finally, my wife bought the stock for our family portfolio on 3 November 2022, just before the US midterm elections. It has since surged by 24.3%. So we’re now members of the massed ranks of happy Apple shareholders!
