Will Apple Reach $1 Trillion? These Are the Numbers to Watch
- The number used for outstanding shares matters to valuation
- Shares outstanding have fallen by 0.4% each month since 2012
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Hoping Apple Inc.’s results provide enough punch to push it over the $1 trillion hump? Besides revenue and profit there’s a line on tonight’s income statement you should also check: the share count.
Thanks to buybacks, Apple’s has been falling, and at a purely arithmetic level that will matter to whether its market capitalization expands enough after the close to make it the first U.S. company with a 13-digit valuation. (Arguments about whether buybacks raise stock prices are for another story.)