Apple stock took another big hit on Wall Street last week. The hit took the tech giant’s market cap below the $500 billion mark for only the first time in close to six months. Even though Apple had strong financials for the third quarter, the Cupertino-based company’s stock still slid.
The prolonged weakness of Apple’s stock, which has put it into territory of a bear market, has taken it from one of the highest perches that exist on Wall Street, the famed $500 billion club.
On Thursday, the stock fell 2% to close under the $500 billion capitalization market for only the first time since early May. Apple closed Thursday at $525.62 and had a market cap of approximately $494 billion.
In February, Apple became only the sixth company in the U.S. to post a market cap of $500 billion or higher. That happened just prior to the company releasing its iPad 3 and stayed above that mark until Thursday.
The company’s market cap did not just stay above the $500 billion mark, but flew well above it to establish a record for the highest in the history for a company in the U.S.
Nevertheless, over the past two months Wall Street has not been good to Apple. First, there was a shakeup at the executive level at the company, a decline in the overall market share for tablets and consumer anger at its fourth generation iPad and new iPad mini launch.
Many Wall Street analysts feel the current status of Apple’s stock is due to investors expecting too much from the country’s most valuable company.
