pple (AAPL) – one of the stocks analysts are calling a screaming buy – added to its already-massive list of financial records Tuesday when it became the first U.S. company worth more than $700 billion.

Shares of the gadget maker rose $2.29, or 1.9%, to $122.02 Tuesday — putting an exclamation point on a breathtaking 60% rise in the stock during the past year.

A giant move like that on a massive company like Apple makes for an earth-shattering valuation. At $710.7 billion Apple is worth nearly twice as much as oil giant Exxon Mobil, the second most valuable company at $385.4 billion.

“It shouldn’t be surprising that record breaking market (valuations) follow record-breaking earnings,” says Walter Piecyk, analyst at BTIG. Apple earned profit of more than $18 billion in the fourth quarter – more than any other public company has earned in three months, says S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Apple is the first company in U.S. history to close with a value of $700 billion or more, according to data from S&P Capital IQ and S&P Dow Jones Indices. Microsoft was the first to close above $600 billion in 2000. Apple made a run at $700 billion before and briefly crossed above, but fell back. (Market value is the company’s stock price multiplied by it’s outstanding shares — 5.82 billion shares times $122.02 in Apple’s case.)

It’s ironic that Apple is named after a fruit associated with the discovery of gravity, considering the way the stock keeps seeming to defy the force itself. Apple first broke the $600 billion market value barrier on Aug. 17, 2012, says S&P Capital IQ. That was just 170 calendar days after Apple broke the $500 billion barrier on Feb. 29, 2012. It had cracked that $500 billion barrier just 35 days after closing over $400 billion.

APPLE’S RISE HAS BEEN BREATHTAKING

Market value First close above
$700 billion 2/10/2015
$600 billion 8/17/2012
$500 billion 2/29/2012
$400 billion 1/25/2012
$300 billion 1/3/2011
$200 billion 3/9/2010
$100 billion 5/30/2007
Sources: S&P Capital IQ, USA TODAY research

Some analysts have sounded a warning Apple’s stock is getting too high. But overall, analysts don’t see anything that can stop the juggernaut, which seems able to keep charging customers rich premiums for its products.

Currently, analysts see Apple’s stock hitting $130.70 a share in 18-months. If analysts are right, that means this stock still has more than 7% upside. And at $130.70, the company would be worth an astounding $761.3 billion.

Apple’s market value gains coincide with CEO Tim Cook taking part of a Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. Cook hyped the company’s upcoming Apple Watch, in addition to discussing plans for a 1,300-acre solar farm in Monterey County, Calif.

There’s nothing changing the near term to suggest any competitive risk to Apple’s business and profit margins, says Alex Gauna, analyst at JMP Securities. As Apple’s dominance rises, it gets increasingly difficult for anyone to challenge it, Gauna says.

Tech investors need to be constantly “on guard for an innovation (from another company) or a lack of innovation that could stymie growth,” Gauna says.

“Right now, the stars are aligned for Apple,” Gauna says. “Not until the stock is at $150 do we even have to blink on valuation.”
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http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/02/10/apple-just-made-history-again/

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