As the power and breadth of the Fortune 500 goes on display in this issue, one of its best-known companies, Apple, stands out for so many reasons they are barely countable. In the list itself, Apple is the star, unchallenged. Once a tag-along, it has mountain-climbed to No. 6, with $156.5 billion in revenues. Its 2012 profits were an eye-popping $42 billion (second only to Exxon's $45 billion); its market value of $416 billion led all others at our March measurement date, and it has a pure monopoly on 10-year shareholder returns: first in earnings-per-share growth, with an incandescent annual rate of 86%, and first in total return, with an annual 54%.
Yet in the real world of early 2013, Apple looks both battered and confused. It is starring, so to speak, in two Wall Street movies that feature Bond-like suspense, with no certainty of happy endings. One movie turns on the convulsions in Apple's stock: the zoom in 2012 to $700 per share; the plunge within months to a range around $450; a wild dip in mid-April to -- wow! -- $385. Good theater, for sure (unless you happen to be a shareholder who bought a high-priced ticket to the show).
Yet in the real world of early 2013, Apple looks both battered and confused. It is starring, so to speak, in two Wall Street movies that feature Bond-like suspense, with no certainty of happy endings. One movie turns on the convulsions in Apple's stock: the zoom in 2012 to $700 per share; the plunge within months to a range around $450; a wild dip in mid-April to -- wow! -- $385. Good theater, for sure (unless you happen to be a shareholder who bought a high-priced ticket to the show).
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