Cupertino reaches $945 billion market cap

May 8, 2018 08:42 GMT  ·  By

Apple has long been projected to become the world’s first company worth $1 trillion, and by the looks of things, the Cupertino-based giant has jumped insanely close to reaching this historical milestone.

On Monday, APPL stock reached $187.60 per share in morning trading hours, pushing the company to a total market value of $945 billion. This is $55 billion behind the $1 trillion milestone that Apple is heading towards, and which is expected to finally be touched later this year, most probably after the launch of the 2018 generation of iPhones.

By the end of the day, stock price declined to bring Apple market cap down to $904.4 billion, but a new increase is expected on Tuesday morning.

What’s behind Apple’s growth?

The first half of 2018 was originally forecasted to contribute to a substantial decline for Apple amid weak sales of the iPhone X, the company’s anniversary model launched in the fall of 2017.

But Apple revealed in the second quarter earnings report that sales of the iPhone X have been strong until now, with 52.5 million smartphones sold during the entire quarter. This caused a massive increase for Apple stock earlier this month.

Another reason for Apple getting closer to the $1 trillion milestone is Warren Buffett taking over more Apple shares in the first months of 2018. Berkshire Hathaway, a company controlled by Buffet, owns nearly 5 percent of Apple, according to the investor himself.

“I clearly like Apple. We buy them to hold. We bought about 5 percent of the company. I’d love to own 100 percent of it. … We like very much the economics of their activities. We like very much the management and the way they think,” Buffett told CNBC.

The 2018 generation of iPhone is projected to launch in September, and by the end of the year, Apple is forecasted to break the $1 trillion market cap for the first time.