For the next one month and a half left in 2013, I expect AAPL to rise to 550 a share. The product cycle kicked in, with iPhone 5s, and new iPad etc. Management led by CEO Cook better delivers good results or Corporate Raider Icahn will have an upper hand in the fight.
Apple will never the the $1T company. but its stock may go to $1000 as the outstanding share will go down to 0.5B, making it a $500B company. Still the biggest around the world. Current share is 0.9B.
A reduction of 400M shares sounds a dauting task. Apple retired 40M shares in 2013 alone as of now. Whole 2013 expects 50M shares reduction. Apple's stock buyback spent $16 billion over the June quarter buying 36 million shares off the market at an average price of $444.44, then bought up another 10.4 million shares with a $5 billion repurchase in the September quarter at an average price of around $480.
The cost to buy 100M shares of Apple, cost as of now $52B, less 300M dividend payment, about $50B net cost.
