Apple shares top $300 a share for first time
NEW YORK (AP) _ Apple’s shares topped $300 for the first time in the company’s history Wednesday as stellar iPad sales and a planned expansion into China give investors all the assurance the need for the iPhone maker’s already healthy prospects.
Shares of Apple Inc. climbed $1.60 to close at $300.14 after peaking at a record $301.96 earlier. This gives Apple a market capitalization of about $273 billion . Apple had long surpassed the scale of tech heavyweights such as Microsoft Corp. , Google Inc. and IBM , which also hit an all-time high on Wednesday.
In fact, Apple’s market cap is now trails only Exxon Mobil Corp. as a U.S. publicly traded company. Exxon’s market cap hovers around $330 billion . Big-name corporations such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and General Electric Co. don’t even come close.
