Buoyed by the forthcoming release of the iPhone 8, shares of Apple have been on an absolute rampage lately. Over the past few months, Apple shares have skyrocketed by nearly 50%. In fact, Apple shares earlier today reached a brand new all-time high, eclipsing the $153.50 threshold for the first time in company history. In the process, Apple’s market cap surpassed $800 billion for the first time.
One of the reasons why Apple shares jumped up today — iPhone 8 rumors aside — is because Berkshire Hathaway (of Warren Buffet fame) more than doubled its investment in Apple over the past few months. During the last quarter alone, Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings in Apple increased from $7.1 billion to $19.2 billion. And seeing as how Buffet is largely regarded as the most successful investor in history, Buffet gracing Apple shares with his blessing goes a long ways towards convincing other investors that Apple has plenty of room for growth ahead.
Apple’s passing of the $800 billion market cap threshold aside, some analysts believe Apple shares may climb even higher. One analyst in particular, Brian White of Drexel Hamilton, is confident Apple’s stock price will rise sufficiently high as to give Apple a trillion dollar market cap, something no company has ever previously achieved.
As it stands now, Apple has approximately 5.2 billion shares outstanding. For Apple to become the world’s first trillion-dollar company, its shares will have to trade in the $191 range, an increase of about 25%. White, in a recent note to investors, anticipates that Apple’s stock price may even break the $200 barrier. Currently, White 12-month price target on Apple shares is in the $185 to $202 range, easily making him the most bullish analyst covering Apple today.
Detailing his optimistic take on Apple’s future business prospects, White explains:
In our view, Apple’s quarterly results will be less important this summer as investors are focused on the iPhone 8 this fall, along with the company’s raised capital distribution initiative, depressed valuation and potential new innovations. We believe Apple remains among the most underappreciated stocks in the world (11.3x our CY:18 EPS estimate, ex-cash).
Assuming that the iPhone 8 lives up to the hype — and at this point there’s no reason to believe it won’t — White’s exceedingly bullish take on Apple shares is undeniably plausible. One final point worth mentioning is that the price target Apple shares need to reach to hit a trillion dollar market cap will increase ever so slightly if Apple continues to buy back shares on the open market and retire them.
