Three years ago at this time, shares traded at just $78.20

Feb 13, 2012 15:11 GMT  ·  By

The image shown above just arrived via Twitter from @chronic and @iH8sn0w who were eager to spread the word that Apple had just broken the $500 mark in New York trading today.

As Fortune points out, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone following the Mac maker’s evolution in the past few years.

For example, three years ago around this time, AAPL traded at just $78.20. There have been quite a few Wall Street analysts who had set their target on Apple at $500 a share, and some have it pinned at $600.

Which is not too farfetched considering that Apple now has an iPad 3 and an iPhone 5 waiting on the launch pad.

The iPhone 4S announcement was considered a disappointment, yet that didn’t stop Apple shares from surging, did it?