(Bloomberg) -- It may have seemed like Apple Inc. retook its trillion-dollar market capitalization Wednesday morning, when the stock rallied on better-than-expected second-quarter results. But it was more mirage than milestone.
While the iPhone maker is hovering near re-entry into the 13-digit club, along with Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc., it falls short because of its hefty buyback program. Apple had 4.601 billion shares outstanding as of April 22, according to a filing late Wednesday. The stock's 4.9 percent advance to $210.52 on Wednesday equates to a valuation around $969 billion.
Apple reported 4.72 billion shares outstanding in its last quarterly filing. Had the share count stayed constant, Apple would have surpassed the $1 trillion threshold at Wednesday's intraday high price for the first time since November.
Apple shares would need to trade at or above $217.34 for a $1 trillion valuation. That would necessitate a gain of 3.2 percent from current levels.
--With assistance from Jeran Wittenstein.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Vlastelica in New York at rvlastelica1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Richard Richtmyer
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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