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Apple's ride to $1 trillion: The magic number that gets it there

Apple updated its latest share count on Wednesday, putting the magic stock price at $207.04 that would make the iPhone maker the first publicly listed U.S. company valued at $1 trillion.

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Apple updated its latest share count on Wednesday, putting the magic stock price at $207.04 that would make the iPhone maker the first publicly listed U.S. company valued at $1 trillion.

Apple said in a quarterly filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, that its share count was 4,829,926,000 on July 20, less than the 4,842,917,000 it reported on Tuesday for the end of the June quarter.

Apple's stock rose 5.89 percent to a record-high close of $201.50 on Wednesday following the company's better-than-expected quarterly results. That would put Apple's stock market value at $973 billion, based on its newly disclosed number of shares. 

With a mountain of overseas cash freed up by last year's sweeping U.S. corporate tax cuts, Apple bought back a record $43 billion of its own shares in the first six months of 2018, and its report to the SEC suggested it has continued that program in recent weeks. A lower share count means Apple's stock must reach a higher price to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization.

The world's most valuable technology company also forecast revenue above expectations for the fall, when it typically launches new iPhone models, reassuring a nervous tech sector that saw sell-offs last week in Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Netflix Inc on concerns about their future growth.

The Cupertino, California company has responded to a plateauing global smartphone market by launching ever-more expensive phones and diversifying into services, prospering even as rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd missed targets for its flagship Galaxy S9 and China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd took the No. 2 global smartphone sales spot.

Apple also regained growth in China, where sales rose 19%. Sales there fell dramatically in 2016 after Chinese consumers shunned the iPhone 7, whose overall appearance differed little from its predecessor.

And a $20 billion stock buyback in the quarter spurred by sweeping US corporate tax cuts brought Apple's buyback tally this year to a record $43 billion and exceeded the stock market value of almost three-quarters of the companies in the S&P 500.

"The lesson Apple's management has learned from the iPhone X, is when you sell a smartphone for more than $1,000 you can sell fewer units and still reap the financial benefits," said analyst Thomas Forte from DA Davidson & Co.

With inputs from Reuters

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