Apple's stock market value adds up to 3.7% of the entire S&P 500

We remember in the mid 1980's when Apple's stock was down to $12 during the John Sculley years. More recently, we can recall pre-Apple iPhone days when the stock was under $40. Now, years later, the Apple iPhone is almost 5 years old with 5 generations of the device having been launched. The company is on the verge of  launching its third generation tablet and the Apple iPad has become as much as an international hit as the iPhone has. Apple's stock has risen nearly in a straight line as more and more profits are filing up the Apple vault. Today, Apple is trading at $522.

The amazing thing about Apple's stock is that with the sensational rise it has had, the value of the company's shares now makes up 3.7% of the entire S&P 500. J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz says that Apple is no longer a company, but is its own sector of the market. Looking at the stock this way, Apple would be the 8th largest sector in the U.S., ahead of materials and utilities. Ironically, thanks to Apple, the tech sector leads the way by making up 20.2% of the stateside market index.

Apple has $98 billion in cash and could buy any company it wants to. But the stock market works in cycles and stocks don't go straight up. Companies that in the past looked like it would rise forever eventually turned course and there will come a time when Apple's stock moves lower. But for now, the Cupertino based company is on an amazing roll that makes it the most valuable company in the S&P 500, worth more than Google and Microsoft combined and topping ExxonMobil by $60 billion.

Can the stock go higher? Back in January 2011, with the stock trading at a then all-time high of $329, not too many traders could imagine the company's market cap of $273 billion, which then put it $60 billion ahead of Microsoft, moving higher. As long as there is skepticism that Apple can go higher, the stock should continue to make new high. Once everyone is in agreement that there is no place for the stock to go  but up, that is the time to sell.

source: TUAW