Apple Passes Exxon As Most Valuable U.S. Company In Terms Of Market Cap

NEW YORK — Apple briefly surpassed Exxon as the most valuable U.S. company after an excellent quarter, though the oil company has regained the lead at the market's close.

Apple's stock rose as much as 8 percent, while Exxon's fell as much as 2 percent during trading Wednesday.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s stock closed up 4 cents at $87.22 for a market capitalization of $418 billion. Apple's increased 6 percent to $446.66 for a market cap of about $415 billion.

Apple said Tuesday that net income in its latest quarter more than doubled, while revenue grew 73 percent.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple first topped Exxon in August, then fell back to second place. Irving, Texas-based Exxon had held the top spot since 2005.

Apple overtook Microsoft Corp., now in the No. 3 slot, in 2010.

Comments

[GracieZG]

12:23 PM on 01/28/2012

I love the characterization of Apple as the "most valuable" company in the world rather than the "richest" company. Perhaps we can now start characterizing the "richest" people on this planet as the "most valuable" people.

[tleb]

04:20 PM on 01/27/2012

This happens everytime Apple reports good earnings... Then Exxon regains... duh. An oil company will always be more valuable than a premium consumer goods product company... Anyone notice the price of oil over time... it generally keeps going up!

[old broken record]

04:22 AM on 01/27/2012

ah one of the many benefits of slave labor

[thereisonlyoneparty]

11:04 AM on 01/26/2012

Market cap is rather meaningless.  It is what people claim a company is worth.  Yeah, it typically does take into account value of holdings and contracts and what not, but it is incredibly volatile.

Not that Apple is a bad company. It has great profit on a decent amount of revenue.  Cash holdings are great as well.  The brand itself has value.  The total value of its patent and other IP holding is enormous.

But just looking at market cap is really nothing.   It is good for a pissing contest though.

[becky bradshaw]

11:17 AM on 01/26/2012

Apple has asserted ownership of an enormous amount of intellectual property. Most of these assertions are likely to fail eventually (http://www.m-cam.com/patently-obvious/end-season-apple-sale-intellectual-property-analysis-apple-inc-patent-related-rulin).

Apple has been a spectacular business success, but invention has not been part of the Apple culture.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

11:28 AM on 01/26/2012

I think that you would agree that there is value right now.  Even if the patents are not enforceable in the long term.  And it is not just the patents.  The other IP (operating systems and other software) has value as well.

And it does not really matter if one created something when the loyal followers see other companies as being the ones stealing ideas.  Apple loyalists really believe that Apple invented everything and will avoid those who may they view as thieves like the plague.

[RegisteredIndy]

12:53 PM on 01/27/2012

Market cap is one of the most meaningful metrics of a company and not as volatile as you might think. The volatility you perceive is a result of you holding all other commodities at a constant value. The US dollar has experienced more volatility than Apple stock for long periods over the past few years. Real estate has certainly been more volatile.

[becky bradshaw]

10:58 AM on 01/26/2012

Which company has the more stable market capitalization value, Apple or Exxon?

Exxon's product life is certainly finite, we can't use oil forever, and if environmentalists can gain political footing, carbon-based fuels could become targeted. Barring a complete societal collapse, replacing oil in the world economy would take decades.

Apple is dependent on consumers accepting exploitation of the population in Asia, especially in China. If the workers or consumers revolt, this situation could change quickly. But even in a worst case scenario, Apple would cease manufacturing overseas, and profitably milk their market position for several years. Microsoft has done it.

[tleb]

04:21 PM on 01/27/2012

People will always be using oil... in most places on Earth, they still burn coal to cook and heat the home...

[macmanchgo]

10:34 AM on 01/26/2012

And shame on Huffington for posting the NYTimes Apple attack article on the headline to their site. I sincerely hope that they begin an investigation into the nefarious forces behind this blatantly unfair attack on Apple. Since when is a private company responsible for setting government rules that define acceptable conditions that workers can labor under?

[littlepuffycloud]

11:30 AM on 01/26/2012

What's a little aluminum dust anyway?

[Scott Kenan]

01:07 PM on 01/26/2012

Oh PISH-POSH!!! Your last sentence is a pure Michelle Bachmann Pretzel twist of Logic!!!

See what i do with Apple on my blog. And I'm pulliing down some top Republican Drug Lords and Fox News as well -- working with the FBI and DEA here in wilmington, NC -- with support of my Kenan relatives who founded UNC Chapel Hill. See index to subjects beneath link to my book on the time I worked for playwright Tennessee Williams. YEAH BABY -- WE ARE DOING IT!!!

http://scottkenan.blogspot.com .

Thank you,
Scott

[LBA7895]

06:43 AM on 01/26/2012

Blood for money, the foundation of both companies....

Disgusting!

[boyoboy]

09:34 AM on 01/26/2012

Add Sony, Nokia, HP, etc.

[RegisteredIndy]

01:00 PM on 01/27/2012

I'd be willing to bet that there has been a net gain in the quality of life for the average worker in these factories as a result of the Apple contracts.

You should save your disgust for situations where have sufficient data to justify it.

[Corie Lemmon]

02:13 AM on 01/26/2012

in terms of market cap, and that only...can't count them as valuable job creators, unless you count their jobs in China. A pathetic company, and I hope people are smart enough to realize they don't need the junk Apple has to offer if its going to create more jobs overseas and think of only profit over people. They shouldn't even be considered valuable in anything. Apple will never get any of my money, I refuse to buy things from companies like them

[boyoboy]

09:33 AM on 01/26/2012

Be sure that you don't buy Sony, Nokia, HP, and others.  They're all in the same boat.

[Corie Lemmon]

11:36 PM on 01/28/2012

i don't buy any extra things. We pay our bills, feed our family, and put gas in our cars. nothing left after that

[RecreationalPilot]

01:18 AM on 01/26/2012

blood money

[Lia Piera]

10:34 PM on 01/25/2012

I am sure we can all agree no one man is worth $347 Million Dollars for just signing onto a company-not even doing any work yet. I am sure if you're like most people you would have to agree that at this time in our country most are struggling to get by and when we all go to buy that new shiny Apple product we are going to end up dropping some serious change. So now that this information is out in the open, how does this make everybody feel? Does this make you wish you purchased another competitors product? If Apple thinks it's justifiable to mark up their products only to redistribute that money to one man--NOT R&D..and not even American jobs (over 500,000 apple jobs in china, only around 40,000 in the states), then how will this company continue to prosper?
______________
Lia
http://www.tech-bargain.com

[becky bradshaw]

10:45 AM on 01/26/2012

According to Steve Jobs, Apple employed 700,000 workers at just Foxconn. Estimate another 100,000-160,000 at other suppliers like Samsung and TSMC (Taiwan).
http://businessfacilities.com/blog/jobs-in-name-only/

For each manufacturing position, normally 3-4 support jobs are created. In summary, Apple's operation denies the American economy of about 3 million jobs, more than the population of 20 states.

500,000 is a little low, let's use the number 3 million.

[sking007]

09:45 PM on 01/25/2012

I don't know how they measure value but, I'm having a helluva time trying to cram my iPhone into my gas tank.

[MikeyJaii]

09:13 PM on 01/25/2012

Chase laughs at these two.

[jflorish]

08:39 PM on 01/25/2012

Glad to see a big tech comany here become the biggest market cap, I would have figured it would always be an oil company (and probably will return to that eventually) because they are so big and stable.

[NHBill]

03:14 AM on 01/26/2012

by the end of this year Apple puts Exxon/Mobil in the rear view mirror

[billynkacey27]

07:48 PM on 01/25/2012

It really dosent surprise me that Apple makes so much money when 98% of their products are made and assembled in China at a company called foxconn witch employs something like a million people and you can guess who holds foxconns largest contracts ... Apple, Microsoft, Sony so those i-whatevers, x-boxes, wii's, and playstations that our childern love soooooooo much all made at the same company Foxconn. go figure, dont believe me check it out for yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn and it only costs apple on average 17 US Dollars per foxconn employee working on their contract per day and when they work like 14 to 16 hours a day thats a little more than a dollar an hour, so theres no way Apple is going to bring jobs back to the "good ole' USA" when labor is so cheap over there,.and Apple is probably not going to bring their Loot back here either when Apple CEO Have stated that "its not their companys job to fix the American Economy" so lets give Apple more of our HARD earned american dollars to an "American" company whos interest are Clearly not in America.. and its not just Apple more and more companys are Out-sourceing because its so hard for companys to build jobs here in America and i forsee it getting a lot worse before it gets better, the JOB problem isnt going to go away any time soon.

[boyoboy]

09:37 AM on 01/26/2012

Sony, HP, Nokia, and all of the other major players have the same issues.  They've all got to speak as one voice demanding change in China -- and we have to be willing to pay for it.

[every man12345]

07:20 PM on 01/25/2012

The new enemy
- Profitability that dwarfs any oil company
- Anti-union
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-57320237-248/apple-to-train-managers-on-union-awareness-exclusive/
- Off-shores jobs to Chinese working in in-humane conditions
- Generates huge amounts of toxic waste from old electronic products, batteries etc that it does little to address. Some of it gets shipped to third world countries for waste disposal.