Shares in Apple Inc. closed at yet another record high on Thursday, ending the day at US$633.68 per share, up $9.37 (+1.50 percent), on moderate volume of 22.8 million shares trading hands. The increase was fueled by ongoing AAPL mania, a new price target of $800 from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, and his prediction that Apple would release a TV called “iPanel” in Q4 of 2012.
Apple’s new market cap is $590.8 billion.
That marks the twelfth record closing high for Apple since the beginning of March, and the 37th in 2012. All told, shares of AAPL have risen 56.5 percent since it closed at $405 at the end of 2011, a tremendous increase for the world’s most valuable corporation.
Price targets for the stock are currently in the $700 to $1,001 range—Topeka Capital initiated coverage of Apple with that stratospheric price target on April 2nd.
Gene Munster of Piper Jefferies set his own price target at $1,000 on April 3rd, noting that an Apple-branded TV set was still possible. He speculated that Apple could be the first company to hit a trillion dollar market cap, a valuation the company would be close to at $1,000 per share.
*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.