17 Facts About Apple

Apple Inc.AAPL -0.87%, the biggest company in the world, just reached a market value of $700 billion. That’s huge.
Part of what’s notable about the company’s size is just how far it’s climbed. When the dot-com boom was at its fullest bloom and Microsoft Corp.MSFT -0.25% was the untouchable beast, the Redmond boys were 26 times as big as the geniuses from Cupertino. Today, Apple is 1.78 times as big as Microsoft.
Here are 17 more facts about the world’s most valuable company, compiled by the Dow Jones stats team.
1. Apple is on pace for its fourth straight record close today.
2. Since its IPO in December 1980, the market value of the company has risen over 50,000%.
3. From its first day close, the share price has risen 23,100%.
4. At the Nasdaq peak in March 2000, Microsoft and Exxon XOM -0.98% (the second- and third-largest companies in the S&P 500) were 26 and 13 times larger than Apple, respectively.
5. Currently, Apple is now 1.78 times the size of Microsoft and 1.75 times the size of Exxon.
6. Apple first passed Exxon Mobil (the largest company back in 2011) in market value on Aug. 10, 2011, and has continuously been larger than Exxon Mobil since Aug. 1, 2013.
7. Apple is bigger than all of the following companies combined: Google Inc.GOOGL +0.32%, Samsung Electronics Co.005930.SE +0.92%, HTC Corp.2498.TW -0.74%, BlackBerry Ltd.BB.T -1.28%, Lenovo Group Ltd.0992.HK +1.12%, Hewlett-Packard Co.HPQ +0.35%, Cirrus Logic Inc.CRUS -1.36%, SanDisk Corp.SNDK +0.20%, Sony Corp.6758.TO -1.32%, Broadcom Corp.BRCM -0.29% and Pandora Media Inc.P -2.18%
8. While the S&P 500 has not experienced a 20% pullback since March 2009, Apple has experienced a bear market in that time, falling 44.4% from September 2012 to April 2013.
9. The company is now up 113% from its recent bear low of $55.79 on April 19, 2013.
10. Apple has bought back more than 10% of its stock since September 2012. The share count for Apple has dropped from 6,574 million shares to 5,864 million shares in that time.
11. At its 2012 peak, Apple made up almost 5% of the S&P 500′s market cap. As of Aug. 19, 2014–the second time Apple reached its 2012 peak–it made up less than 3.5% of the S&P 500. As of November 20, it made up roughly 3.8% of the index.
12. The stock’s average annual growth rate over the past five years is roughly 32%. If Apple stock continues to grow at this pace it will become a $1 trillion company by early 2016.
13. Since Tim Cook became CEO on Aug. 24, 2011, Apple’s market value has risen 100%. Its share price has risen from $53.74 to $119.35, up $65.61 or 122%.
14. Apple is up 27% since its 7-for-1 stock split on June 9, 2014.
15. Month-to-date, it is up 10.5%, on pace to be its best month since July 2013.
16. Year-to-date, it is up 49%, on pace to be its highest annual percentage gain since 2010.
17. Of the 46 S&P 500 record closes this year, Apple has been up 32 of those 46 days