Apple Inc. closed out the June quarter with a bang, clinching a $3 trillion valuation for the first time.
Shares of Apple
AAPL,
advanced 2.3% in Friday trading, given them a market capitalization above $3 trillion. The company previously hadn’t ended a trading session at the milestone mark, though it got close Jan. 3, 2022, when it traded intraday at levels that would have amounted to that valuation level but failed to close there.
The smartphone giant became the first U.S. company to secure a $3 trillion valuation. Its market capitalization alone is larger than the market caps of the S&P 500 Utilities, Real Estate and Materials sectors combined, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Apple’s close in $3 trillion territory comes 719 trading days after it crossed the $2 trillion threshold, also according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Read: Apple’s march toward a $3 trillion valuation, shown in one chart
Citi Research weighed in late Thursday with a vote of confidence in the stock’s ability to run ever higher from here, with analyst Atif Malik initiating coverage of the shares with a buy rating and $240 target price.
See more: Buy Apple’s stock because it’s more than just a hardware play, Citi says
“We believe the Street is underestimating continued gross margin expansion,” Malik wrote in his note to clients, while adding that he anticipates the “trend of premium iPhones grabbing more share to continue.”
His bullish note came as Apple shares surged 46% so far in 2023 amid a strong first half of the year for Big Tech players.
More from MarketWatch: The Nasdaq-100 is headed for its best first half on record. But the rally faces a high-stakes test in July.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives chimed in that Apple shares could come to fetch a higher multiple as the company nears $100 billion in annual services revenue for fiscal 2024, compared with about $50 billion in fiscal 2020.
“Herein lies the key to the valuation re-rating that we believe will continue to take place around Apple’s stock as the Street further appreciates the sheer massive potential of this services revenue that we now assign a valuation in the $1.4 trillion range,” he wrote.
Ives said he thinks a fair valuation for Apple would be about $3.5 trillion by fiscal 2025, though his bull case contemplates the potential for a $4 trillion valuation by that point.
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