Apple is now worth more than Greece, as value passes $400B

January 19, 2012 By Andrew Couts

Apple's stock hit a record high today of more than $431 a share, pushing its market value past the gross domestic product of a number of countries around the world.

Apple‘s stock price hit an all-time hight of $431.37 a share in early trading today, pushing its market capitalization above $400 billion. At that price, Apple’s value was higher than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Greece, Austria, Argentina or South Africa, reports CNN. Apple stock has since fallen below its record price, to a little over $429.60, at the time of this writing.

Apple remains the most-valuable technology company in the world, and the second most-valuable company overall. Only Exxon Mobil, which has a current value of about $414 billion, is worth more. The next highest-valued company after Apple is PetroChina, at $270 billion, followed by Microsoft, which has a market value of $235 billion.

With Apple’s gargantuan size, one would expect its stock to fluctuate slowly. Instead, the company is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s stock price has risen around 25 percent over the past year. And when the Cupertino, California-based company announces its fourth quarter 2011 earnings next week, analysts expect its sales to have risen a full 45 percent, compared to the same period the year before.

All of this potential success lies on the shoulders of Tim Cook, who took over as Apple’s chief executive after the death of the company’s infamous co-founder, Steve Jobs, late last year. If market analyst predictions are any indication — and, in this case, they are — there’s little worry that Cook is up for the challenge. Just yesterday, RCB Capital Markets raised its target price for Apple’s stock to $525 based on “unprecedented” worldwide demand for Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone.

So, what does this mean for you, dear gadget consumer? Nothing much, unless you happen to own a wheelbarrow-full of Apple stock. But considering that people continue to buy Apple’s products in increasing volume is what is helping to pad the pockets of Apple stockholders, feel free to give yourself a pat on the back.

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Jeff Robinson at 9:28pm 19th January 2012 We can take all the precautions we like, but eventually every system can undergo a shift that shakes it to the core. We see it with the weather when a rare alignment of meteorological events tears a calm environment to shreds. We see it in business when a dominant company or brand in a particular market is suddenly toppled. Mathematicians and scientists variously explain these phenomena in “chaos theory,” “catastrophe theory” and “tipping point theory.” Today, one major corporation that may have just reached a tipping point is Apple Inc.Somewhat ironically, Apple’s fortunes had already started changing course just as its stock hit meteoric levels in 2011. Then Steve Jobs died. The death of a brilliant business leader is a blow for any company, but it’s a potential disaster for Apple for three reasons. First, Apple doesn’t just have customers like any other corporation; it has disciples, or more accurately, Jobs had disciples. He exercised a near-messianic influence over these followers by creating a quasi-mystical aura around Apple’s products, which some regard almost as sacred amulets and Jobs their divine creator. That was no mean feat for a mere mortal and it was mainly where his brilliance lay. He wasn’t a trained product designer, software engineer, or mathematician, but he was exceptionally clever, had an inspired imagination, enormous ambition and a sharply focused sense of purpose driven by a sizeable ego. In short, he was a genius. R