Apple Taps $5 Trillion, All Eyes on Tomorrow's Quarterly Figures

Apple (AAPL) yesterday briefly became the second publicly traded company ever to reach a market value of $5 trillion. With this, the tech company Nvidia briefly left behind as the most valuable company in the world.

Although the share later fell slightly, the market value remained close to the historical limit. Investors' attention is now shifting to Thursday's quarterly figures.

On Thursday, Apple presents its results for the past quarter. This will also be the last quarterly presentation led by CEO Tim Cook. On 1 September, John Ternus officially takes over the baton.

Apple's share has risen about 25 percent this year, outperforming many other big tech companies. During the trading day, the stock peaked at $342.89. Eventually, it closed at $340.08.

It is striking that Apple is being rewarded for a strategy that deviates from that of competitors such as Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta. While these companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure, Apple is keeping capital expenditures relatively low. The company also makes extensive use of external AI technology and cloud infrastructure.

Last year, Apple was criticized for lagging behind in the AI race, according to many analysts. By now, that sentiment seems to have changed. Investors are increasingly worried that the huge AI investments of other tech companies will only yield returns in the longer term. In the meantime, Apple is better able to maintain profitability.

Wall Street expects Apple to report sales of about $109 billion on Thursday. That would be an increase of about 16 percent compared to a year ago. Earnings per share are estimated at $1.88 to $1.89.

Investors are paying particular attention to the outlook for Apple Intelligence, iPhone sales, the growth of the services business, and the impact of recent price increases for MacBooks and iPads, among others. Expectations for the coming quarter are also being closely monitored.

The quarterly figures are extra special because it will be Tim Cook's last earnings call as CEO. Analysts expect that the strategy under his successor John Ternus will also be discussed extensively. After the historic market value of almost $5 trillion, the bar for Apple is higher than ever.