Apple Stock Prices Surge as the Company Overtakes Its Main Rival Samsung
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Apple (AAPL) stock prices surged in after-hours trading Tuesday in the wake of its quarterly earnings report, which showcased record-breaking numbers for the company.
The company’s stocks fluctuated a bit Wednesday morning and afternoon, but shares are still up nearly 8 points from Tuesday’s close of $121.35. As of the writing of this article, Apple’s stocks were trading at $129.09, which represent a 6.35 percent increase.
Cupertino’s Q1 2017 quarter, which ended Dec. 31, 2016 and incorporated the busy holiday shopping season, was the company’s best yet — the company recorded 78.3 million iPhone sales after the launch of the iPhone 7 lineup, surpassing many analyst predictions.
“We’re thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch.”
Additionally, Apple overtook Samsung as the top smartphone vendor in the world in the December quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple’s fiscal year ends in September, so the company’s Q1 2017 quarter coincides with the financial world’s Q4 2016 quarter.
While Samsung still ranked first in overall annual sales, Apple was able to bump the Korean company from that position in Q4 2016, likely due to the iPhone 7’s strong release and the Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco. Apple and Samsung still ran neck-in-neck during the quarter, controlling 17.8 and 17.7 percent of the market respectively. Chinese smartphone maker Huawei scored a distant third with 10 percent of the global market share.
Samsung will likely bank on the release of its Galaxy S8 flagship in a few weeks to “reignite growth and return to the top spot in quarterly smartphone shipments,” Strategy Analytics’ Executive Director Neil Mawston said. But Cupertino has an ace up its sleeve for 2017 and 2018: its much-rumored, radically redesigned 10th anniversary iPhone, which the company is expected to unveil later this year.
