Apple’s Stock Hits New Closing High of $413

Shares in Apple Inc. hit a new record closing high Tuesday, ending the day at US$413.45 per share, a gain of $1.82 (+0.44%), on heavy volume of 27.5 million shares trading hands. This is the second closing high in a row for the stock, and just the fourth time for the stock to close above $400.

AAPL Chart

AAPL Chart for Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Source: Yahoo! Finance

According to analysts at Trefis, anticipation of a new iPhone is one of the driving factors pushing the stock higher. As more and more Wall Street analysts have issued research notes saying that a new iPhone is around the corner, investors have finally started paying attention.

Of particular interest is the note from JP Morgan on Monday that said Apple was working on an iPhone 4-plus that is being tailor made for China—Trefis believes that investors are giddy at the idea that Apple may be able to achieve some significant growth for the iPhone in emerging markets (like China) with such a product.

As you can see in the chart above, AAPL had a bit of a roller coaster ride during Tuesday’s trading. The stock opened higher, dipped, ratcheted higher, bounced around above $421 for much of the day, only to shed all those gains in the last 90 minutes of trading. A last second bump cement gave the stock the record closing high of $413.45.

Apple’s market cap now stands at $383.3 billion, keeping Apple as the world’s most valuable company. Exxon Mobil the world’s second most valuable company, ended the day at $74.01, up 0.310 (+0.42%), with a market cap of $359.8 billion.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.