Apple Shares Climb 3% to Close at Four-Year High

Shares of Apple Computer (AAPL) climbed above US$40 on Wednesday for the first time in four years.

The stock closed at $40.64, up $1.27 or 3.23%, on volume of 7.8 million shares. At one point during the trading day, Apple stock was as high as $40.76.

Shares of Apple have more than doubled since their 52-week low of $19.25 on Dec. 22, 2003.

Apple will announce its fiscal fourth quarter results Wednesday, October 13th after the close of the stock market. A conference call to discuss the quarterly results will be broadcast live via streaming QuickTime at 5pm EDT. As always, The Mac Observer will provide in-depth coverage.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call currently expect Apple to earn 18 cents a share, on $2.1 billion in revenue, for its just-ending fiscal fourth quarter. During the same period a year ago, Apple earned 8 cents a share on revenue of $1.71 billion.