Apple Shares Breach $200 Mark

Shares of Apple Inc. breached the $200 mark for the first time on Wednesday, as investors maintained their confidence in the company at the end of what has been a strong year for the iPod and computer maker.

Apple stock traded briefly at $200.96 per share but finished at $198.95, rising $0.15, or 0.08 percent, for the day. The rally on Apple reflected on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Stock Market, whose composite index rose 10.91 for the day to close at 2,724.41 -- a 0.40 percent rise. As of Thursday, Apple's market capitalization, the aggregate value of a company, based on it stock price and number of shares, was $167.63 billion.

Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, had crossed the $100 mark for the first time in May and is the fifth-best performer on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index this year. The company that manufactures the iPod and Macbook laptops has more than doubled its sales of Macintosh personal computers and has seen tremendous demand for its new product the iPhone this year.

Caris & Co. analyst Shebly Seyrafi said he wasn't surprised that Apple hit the $200 mark.

He said, "Apple has a lot of momentum right now." He added that even though the company’s retail sales growth appears to be weaker than in prior years, their overall business is very strong.

Apple's riding high on a string of successes, including the triumphant multi-national release of the iPhone which is a hybrid cell phone, multimedia player and wireless Internet device that went on sale at the end of June. The company refreshed its notebook computers and launched the highly successful Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard," during the year.

Apple also released a refreshed line of iPods during the year, updating its flash-based Nano model to one that can play videos. The company introduced the iPod Touch which is much like an iPhone without cellular calling capabilities.

Peter Oppenheimer, the CFO of Apple, took a very conservative approach towards quarterly corporate guidance. Apple has easily topped Oppenheimer's goals throughout the year, and more importantly, has also exceeded the expectations of analysts.

Apple has set quarterly sales records for the Mac, selling 2.16 million Macintoshes in its fourth fiscal quarter, which closed at the end of September. The company also sold 10.2 million iPods and 1.12 million iPhones for the same period.

According to Amazon.com Inc., the MacBook laptop was among the top-selling PCs in the Internet retailer's ``best ever'' holiday season. David Bailey, an analyst with Goldman, Sachs & Co. expects Mac sales to reach 2.22 million units this quarter.

Apple now has a higher market value than Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and Intel Corp.

Apple has predicted sales of $9.2 billion and profit of $1.42 a share, up from $7.12 billion and $1.14 in the year-earlier period. But the analysts are confident of an even better showing by the company.