There’s been talk of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) carrying the iPhone maker to a $1 trillion valuation for more than a year, but talk about Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) has emerged more recently. The two companies are in a race of sort, with analysts debating which company will reach a 13-figure market capitalization first. Some put Apple there by the end of the year, although Amazon might not reach that level until the end of next year or later.

Still, Apple stock has been volatile around this year’s iPhone release, putting that blue skies scenario of a $1 trillion valuation within the next 45 days in jeopardy and giving Amazon a shot at beating out the Cupertino giant.

Image: Google Finance/Screenshot

Apple stock at $200 for a $1 trillion valuation

Apple stock tumbled by about 1% intraday on Tuesday, dragging the company’s stock further below the record high of $900 billion from earlier this month and making that $1 trillion market cap seem even further away.

Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White described Apple as a “trillion-dollar [sic] baby” in a note late last week. He reported that sales from Taiwan-based suppliers in his Apple Monitor were weaker than typical seasonality in October, although the September quarter was the best ever recorded. Sales rose 1% month over month, compared to the 12-year average increase of 7%, although that was after five straight months of growth that was better than typical seasonality. White has a $235 price target on Apple stock, which would give the company a market cap of $1.2 trillion.

Chart technician and TradingAnalysis founder Todd Gordon told CNBC recently that he sees Apple at a $1 trillion market cap by the end of this year. He bases this timeline on the “very strong” uptrend he sees back to the summer of last year. Parallel lines on the Apple stock chart lead him to believe that the shares could rally to about $200 per share, which would bring the company’s market cap past $1 trillion.

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