Apple Stock Shares

Apple Stock Shares, The shares hit $503.83 soon after opening, before subsiding to $502.60 in after-hours trading. That was up $9.18, or 1.9 percent, from Friday’s close.

Apple Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. have been vying for the position as most valuable company in the world since last summer, but the latest rally has made the gadget maker 17 percent more valuable than the oil company. Its market capitalization is now $465 billion, compared to Exxon’s $400 billion.

On Jan. 24, Apple posted net income of $13.06 billion for the quarter that ended in December, more than doubling its profits from the year before. Sales were $46.3 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago.

Even before it posted blow-out results, Wall Street analysts had pointed to a big gap between Apple’s share price and its earnings. By common methods of valuation that compare a stock price to earnings and earnings growth, the stock should be worth much more.

The average target price of Apple shares given by 37 analysts who have updated their ratings since the Jan. 24 report is $588, according to FactSet data.

Analysts say the company’s policy of keeping its cash rather than paying a dividend has been hurting the stock. Value-oriented funds are often forbidden from investing in companies that don’t pay a dividend, and growth-focused funds are often tapped out – they’re heavily invested in Apple already, and likely don’t want to increase their holdings.

However, company watchers expect Apple to start paying a dividend this year. On a conference call after the earnings report, chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said the board was in “active” discussions about the company’s use of cash.

Westminster Dog

Westminster Dog, The 136th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show begins Monday in New York City. Dogs from across the country come for two days to compete in the world’s most famous dog show against top entries in their breed and group.

The prestigious show will feature 2,077 dogs and 105 Junior Showmanship entries. Dogs come from 47 states across the United States, with New York, California and Pennsylvania featuring the most entries.

At the Westminster Dog Show, Rhodesian Ridgebacks will be the highest entry with 40 dogs and French Bulldogs will come in a close second at 39 entries. There will be 38 Labrador Retrievers competing, 32 Golden Retrievers and 29 Vizslas. The smallest entry is two and occurs in five breeds, including American Water Spaniels, Harriers, Kuvaszok, Sealyham Terriers and Canaan Dogs.

Six of the breeds featured in the Westminster Dog Show are newly recognized breeds and will be competing for the first time in the show. The new breeds include: American English Coonhounds (three entries in Hound Group), Cesky Terries (three entries in Terrier Group), Norwegian Lundehunds (five entries in the non-sporting group), Xoloitzcunitlis (ten entries in the non-sporting group), Entlebucher Mountain dogs (four entries in the herding group) and Finnish Lapphunds (eight entries in the herding group).