Apple Shares Hit $600; $1 Trillion Market Cap Seems Less Outrageous

Shares of Apple broke the $600 threshold for the first time on Thursday, a new milestone for the world’s most valuable company.

Driven upward by excitement for the new iPad, which launches tomorrow and has garnered a slew of rave reviews, Apple’s stock hit $600.01 in early morning trading before slipping back down. This comes just about a month after it broke past the $500 level for the first time.

A stunning rally. Apple’s stock is up about 47 percent for the year, and seems destined to continue its ascent. Analysts certainly seem to think so: Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley and Canaccord Genuity both lifted their price targets on AAPL to above $700.

At $600, Apple has about a $550 billion market cap. At $700, its market cap would be around $603 billion.

And at somewhere around $1,072? $1 trillion.

Which is certainly a long way off, but not implausible. But another 18 months of printing cash at the rate it has been, continued growth in China, Brazil and India, and a few more big product launches — the iPhone 5 and that rumored HDTV — will bring it closer.

Said Canaccord analyst T. Michael Walkley, “We believe Apple is well positioned for very strong C2012/13 sales and earnings growth driven by new product introductions, including the iPad announced last week, the pending refresh of MacBook Air, an LTE iPhone likely in Q3/C2012, and potentially Apple TV in H2/C2012.”