ADVERTISEMENT

Apple Shares Top $300 Amid Optimism About Holiday Sales

Apple shares started the year on a positive note with a gain that pushed the stock above $300 for the first time.

Apple Shares Top $300 Amid Optimism About Holiday Sales
An Apple Inc. logo is displayed outside the company’s store at Yorkdale mall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. shares surpassed $300 amid predictions for a robust holiday quarter, demand for wearables such as AirPods and planned services including streaming TV.

Shares of the iPhone maker rose 2.3% to close at a record $300.35, topping the $300 mark for the first time on a split-adjusted basis. Thursday’s gain was in stark contrast to the dismal start Apple had in 2019 when it cut its sales forecast for the first time in almost two decades exactly a year ago. Despite the setback, Apple went on to outperform all other megacap technology stocks in 2019 with a gain of 86%, its best year in a decade.

Apple Shares Top $300 Amid Optimism About Holiday Sales

Investors are increasingly optimistic about Apple’s user base of nearly 1.5 billion consumers and its ability to leverage auxiliary products like the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple TV and major hardware upgrade cycles for the iPhone and iPad every few years. The company has also promoted its user base as a key to generating recurring revenue from services like iCloud storage subscriptions, streaming service Apple TV+, Apple Music and AppleCare.

Apple is expected to release its next generation of iPhones that are capable of operating on 5G networks in the fall. The company is also expected to release a new low-cost phone in the first half of the year.

Apple shares traded well above $300 when the company completed a 7-for-1 stock split in 2014.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net;Mark Gurman in Los Angeles at mgurman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.