http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2010/03/05/apple-bigger-than-wal-mart/
By Eric Savitz
Apple (AAPL), which had a market cap of several billion a decade ago, is today flirting with $200 billion, fifth in line among U.S. publicly-listed stocks behind Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), Microsoft (MSFT) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).
Apple stock is up $8.63, or 4%, at $219.30, giving it a market cap of $198.88 billion. Wal-Mart today has a market cap of roughly $206 billion.
Mind you, there’s some error inherent in this casual assessment, including the fact that financial sites all use the latest published share count for Apple, at 906.8 million shares outstanding as of January 15. In fact, Apple’s diluted share count, per its latest 10-Q, was almost 920 million shares, which would give the company a market cap of roughly $202 billion.
Any way you slice it, though, it’s a rather stellar achievement in just a decade, without finding oil under the front porch.
Will they overtake Wal-Mart or Berkshire soon?
– Tiernan Ray, Barrons.com
