Sorry Apple fans, your favorite company is no longer the most expensive public company in the world. According to CNBC, that honor now belongs to oil company Saudi Aramco. The latter now costs slightly less than $2.43 trillion. after converting its market value to dollars yesterday. Apple, on the other hand, took a big hit in the stock market on Wednesday, when shares fell 5%.

Apple shares are down $13.51, or 8.66%, in the past five trading days. Just after the next trading session closed on Thursday, Apple’s market cap dropped to $2.31 trillion. Its value has dropped 23 percent since Apple set a 52-week high of $182.94 on January 4. On the other hand, Aramco shares are up 27% since the beginning of the year. In March, the company said its annual profit had doubled due to rising oil prices.

Over the past few years, Apple has become the first American public company to reach various benchmarks of $1 trillion, $2 trillion, and $3 trillion. When we write about Apple’s valuation, we’re talking about the market value, which is calculated by multiplying the current price of Apple shares ($142.56) by the current number of shares.

Other US companies that can compete with Apple are Microsoft ($1.91 trillion market cap) and parent company Google Alphabet ($1.49 trillion market cap). Apple first went public on December 12, 1980, at a price of $22 per share. Since then, the company has split its shares several times, the last of which took place in August 2020 (4-1). Due to the fragmentation of shares, Apple’s IPO price was 10 cents per share.

This means that if you were lucky enough to buy 100 Apple shares in a $22 IPO, you would now own 22,400 shares of the company worth $3.2 million. Source