WWDC Boosts Apple’s Shares To Record High

Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, helped boost the company’s shares to an all-time high on Monday (June 4).

According to CNBC, the conference in San Jose, California drew tens of thousands of third-party programmers from around the world for a preview of the company’s new tools and features, as well as its new operating system.

As a result, Apple’s stock rose as much as 1.7 percent to $193.42, pushing its market capitalization past $940 billion. The shares have gained 24 percent over the past year.

Apple announced several features and upgrades at the conference, including the new iOS 12 operating system, a new augmented reality toolkit in partnership with Adobe, and new features for fighting tech addiction.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently revealed that as of this week, developers have earned $100 billion through the Apple App Store. He also announced that there are 500 million weekly visitors to the App Store.

“The App Store is clearly the best place for you to be rewarded for your hard work and creativity,” Cook said.

Apple isn’t the only one with shares on the rise. All three of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies — including Amazon and Microsoft — climbed to record highs on the same day. The three companies are now worth a combined $2.5 trillion.

However, last month one analyst predicted that Apple’s shares will slump 6 percent from last week’s close to $175 over the next 12 months due to recent average selling prices for iPhones, as well as soft demand for iPhone X.

“iPhone volumes are not deteriorating, though iPhone X remains uninspiring,” analyst Jeffrey Kvaal said in a note to clients. “Apple guidance implied third fiscal quarter iPhone unit volumes that were better than feared. We do not believe, however, sell-through has meaningfully improved.”

As a result, Kvaal kept his Neutral rating on Apple shares, adding that a decline in phone upgrades has played a major factor in the iPhone X‘s disappointing sales.