The race is on to become the world’s first trillion-dollar company, with all eyes on tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
Financial commentators and investors predict 2018 will herald the first firm with a stock market valuation of $1tn (£738bn). Apple is going to be the first trillion-dollar company to reach this spot as it is now only $100 billion away.
There are a lot of expectations from iPhone 8 sales; growth in the services business and share buybacks should help Apple to reach the $1 trillion market cap in roughly the next half year, if price-to-earnings multiples remain the same.
During the dot-com-crazed 1990s, Cisco Systems Inc. became the world’s most valuable company. Widely expected to become the first company to hit a trillion-dollar capitalization, it made barely halfway there. When the technology sector peaked in March 2000, Cisco had a market capitalization of close to $550 billion. From that peak, the entire technology sector imploded. Cisco fared even worse than the Nasdaq, losing 87 percent from its zenith to its nadir. Today, some 18 years later, Cisco is worth about $221 billion; its average annual compounded returns from those lofty heights is a negative -2.17 percent per year, including reinvested dividends, as per Bloomberg reports.
Apple’s board of directors had most recently authorized a $210 billion share-repurchase program that is expected to be completed by March 2019, according to Apple investor relations. That was before the very corporate friendly 2017 tax reform bill was passed. We should not be surprised to see a 10 or even 20 percent share count reduction over the next five years. What is the effect of reducing share count? It makes the earnings of each share higher proportionately. At the same price, higher earnings equal a lower price-to-earnings ratio, and the company appears cheaper.
Warren Buffett, the famous value investor has been notoriously tech averse throughout his career. But his recent announcement that he is out of IBM and into Apple in a big way surprised many investors. Buffett said Apple is now Berkshire Hathaway’s second biggest holding and makes up almost 15 percent of its holdings. It's bigger than Buffett's long-term investments in Wells Fargo, Kraft Heinz, Bank of America, Coca Cola and American Express.
Tags: apple, apple revenue, amazon, facebook, alphabet, varindia, tech giants apple, iPhone 8, iphone 8 price in india, iphone 8 price, iphone 8 full specifications, Bank of America, Coca Cola, American Express
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