Alphabet Overtakes Apple as the World’s Most Valuable Company…Again
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Apple is no longer the most valuable company on the planet. After a drop in Apple’s stock price to $90.28, the lowest it’s been since May of 2014. With a market cap of $493.8 billion, it now sits behind Google’s parent company Alphabet at $497.8 billion.
Although Apple has, for the most part, been the world’s most valuable company since it overtook Exxon Mobil in 2012, Alphabet has been creeping up the last couple of years. The two companies have been on a bit of a see-saw the past year, with Alphabet briefly claiming the title back in February – which Apple reclaimed the very next day.
However, Apple’s stock has been on a bit of a decline this past year, with the company posting their first-ever quarterly decline in iPhone sales, and first quarterly revenue decline in nearly 13 years. With Samsung recently overtaking Apple as the number one smartphone vendor in the US, and rumors that the iPhone 7 will fail to offer any significant new features (noted KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo went on record saying that the new device will lack “attractive selling points”), investors are a bit worried.
This past March, Apple released a new 4-inch iPhone, the iPhone SE, possibly in an attempt to reclaim some of the momentum it lost since iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus sales slowed. Although the SE has performed better than initially expected, the smartphone market is a bit saturated, and iPhone sales may not last as Apple’s top performer. Hopefully Apple can introduce a fresh new product later this year that can help the company regain momentum, whether it be the iPhone 7, Apple Watch 2, or something completely different.
According to USA Today, however, despite Apple’s recent slump, analysts remain “steadfastly bullish on Apple shares,” with an 18-month price target on the stock of $123.96. During mid-day trading, however, Apple was trading under $90, the first time it has done so in almost a year. It will be interesting to see if Apple can turn things around.
How do you think Apple will turn things around? Let us know in the comments.
