All about Apple stock today

Apple (AAPL) shares rose 3.54% on Tuesday, to a new all-time high price of $171.18 per share. At the same time, the market capitalisation of the world's most valuable company surpassed $2.84 trillion, bringing Apple closer to the new $3 trillion valuation milestone.

Since the start of 2021, Apple's shares have risen 29 per cent, and they have gained more than 130 per cent since the start of 2020 (to close on Tuesday 7 December).

On Tuesday, the respected Nikkei Asia, citing interviews with more than 20 industry executives, reported that Apple will not meet production plans for this holiday season due to temporary stoppages of iPhone and iPad assembly at some factories in early October due to component shortages. Apple's product assembly is usually run with extra shifts during this time period due to higher demand during the festive season.

According to Nikkei, COVID-19-related disruptions at component factories in Vietnam and Malaysia have compounded the problems.

This could mean that Apple will miss its target of releasing 90 million iPhone 13 devices in the last three months of the year and miss out on billions of dollars in revenue. Nikkei expects the number to be around 83 million to 85 million units.

Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Apple had already cut its iPhone 13 production plan for this year by 10 million units.

Analyst firms have also suggested that Apple's production problems will continue into 2022.

CEO Tim Cook said that product supply constraints reduced Apple's sales in fiscal Q4 (ended Sept. 30) by about $6 billion.

Despite the supply problems and general market concerns about a potential tightening of Fed policy, investors and Wall Street analysts see Apple stock as "one of the best picks" to date because of expectations of new product launches.

Apple shares

Apple shares jumped on Tuesday on the back of a $200 price forecast from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty (her previous estimate was $164).

The analyst pointed out that the company is entering new areas such as the augmented reality and unmanned car sectors.

Huberty's analysis shows that an AR/VR product could generate $29bn in revenue for Apple by 2026. By comparison, the company generated $20bn in revenue in the first year after the iPad launch. She estimates that over the past five years, on average, about 6% of Apple's revenue comes from products or services that didn't exist five years ago.