Apple's Market Cap Could Go Up As High As $1tn

Apple Inc's market value is expected to breach the $1tn mark, as the iPhone maker continues to experience gains in its share prices.

Steve Einhorn, a top executive at Leon Cooperman's $10bn (£6.4bn, €8bn) hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc, said that the company could "eventually reach the trillion-dollar mark. He was speaking at the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit in New York.

"It's an attractively priced, double-digit returner," he said.

Michael Corcelli, head of the Miami-based Alexander Alternative Capital, also had the same opinion about Apple's market capitalisation, saying the company could reach the $1tn mark next year.

"Absolutely, without a doubt," he said, citing the company's popular tablets and phones going into the holiday shopping period, when retail sales generally spike.

"Right now Apple is the most obvious thing that has to go up," Corcelli added.

Apple's market capitalisation was $668.5bn, as of 17 November – the largest publically-traded company in terms of market cap.

Activist investor Carl Icahn, who has significant Apple share holdings, said earlier that the company remains undervalued, urging it to buy back more shares with its $133bn cash on hand.

"Apple is one of the best companies I would say of the last few decades," Icahn said in the summit. Because Apple is undervalued and has a pile of money, "it's like a no-brainer to buy your own stock back."

In June, the company conducted a seven-for-one stock split, and in April it raised its share repurchase authorisation to $90bn from the $60bn announced last year.

Icahn owns about 53 million shares of Apple as of the end of the third quarter. The company shares increased 53.58% over the last 52-week period.