The markets are mixed during Wednesday’s trading session, but shares in Apple Inc. continued to push for new highs through most of the trading day. As of this writing, AAPL was trading at US$609.07, a gain of $3.11 (+0.51 percent), on moderate volume.
If the stock manages to close higher, it will represent the 16th record high in the last 25 trading sessions, during which the stock jumped by some 20 percent. It would also be the fourth straight record close.
That said, at the current price quoted above, the stock has risen 50.4 percent in the last two and a half months, since the beginning of the year. AAPL closed at $405 per share on December 30th, 2011, the last trading day of that year, and the stock has gained $204.07 since then.
The recent push was sparked in part by the announcement of a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share, which announced on Monday, and also by the launch of the new iPad, which shipped on Friday. On Monday, Apple announced it had sold some three million new iPads in the first three and a half days of availability, a record launch.
As noted above, the broader markets were mixed on Wednesday. The DOW was down some 21 points, while the NASDAQ (up 15) and the S&P (up 0.53) were both in positive territory.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.