FiveHundredCents wrote a post · Jun 1, 2023 20:38

Apple Stock To Hit $3 Trillion: Here’s How Long It May Take

$Apple (AAPL.US)$ is in the clouds. Shares have climbed 35% so far in 2023, with at most a modest 6% pullback along the way. At a price of $177.30 as of Tuesday, the stock is firmly at its 52-week high.

With AAPL currently valued at $2.8 trillion, a gain of only 7.5% would be enough to push the market cap beyond the same milestone that Apple reached very briefly in January 2022.
Could $3 trillion be next for shares of the Cupertino company? Here’s how long the journey from here to there may take, and what could fuel the trip.

AAPL: 3 Months To $3 Trillion?

Over the past decade, AAPL has appreciated at an average daily pace of exactly 0.1%. This may seem like next to nothing, but the returns far outpace those of the S&P 500: average of 0.045% per trading day.
Should Apple stock continue to climb at its average ten-year pace, it would reach the $3 trillion market cap in about three months, near the end of the summer in the northern hemisphere.
Having said the above, I find it more plausible that AAPL will move at a different pace than its historical average. I believe that sharper gains or losses than 0.1% per day are most likely, depending on what catalysts may surface next.
Take the debt ceiling as an example. A deal to keep the US government solvent has already been worked out between President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy. But I don’t know how much the market may react, to the downside or upside, once the deal is put through a vote in the Senate.
It is plausible that a market-wide rally may follow positive macro developments like this. Others that may also serve as bullish catalysts include a soft inflation reading or a Fed decision to be more dovish on monetary policy going forward.

At a company-specific level, June’s WWDC could be an event that encourages traders and investors to bid on AAPL shares. This could happen as a result of speculation ahead of the event or in reaction to whatever happens at the conference.
The announcement of products or services associated with mixed reality or AI could do the trick.
Then, there is Apple’s fiscal Q3 earnings day, which should fall around August 1 – barely two months from now. Depending on the quality of the financial results and outlook, a jump of 5% or more on earnings day alone would certainly not be out of the ordinary.

Being realistic, how long will it take for Apple stock (currently valued at $2.8 trillion) to reach the $3 trillion mark?