Is Apple About To Join The $200 Billion Dollar Club?

Not only has Apple recently been named the very top of the World's Top Most Admired Companies by the very prestigious business magazine Fortune, but they are now aslo reporting that it has now recently become the fourth largest publicly traded company in the U.S., at least when measured by its market cap, which, by the way, is an astounding $198 billion U.S.!

What's also very interesting is that Apple is now virtually also on the point of joining a very rare group of companies - the 200 Billion Dollar Market Cap Club! If it does it will be another major milestone for the Cupertino electronics giant. The other three current members, as pointed out by Philip Elmer DeWitt in Fortune's BrainStorm Tech Blog, are as follows:

- Exxon with a market cap of $314.2 billion

- Microsoft with $250.7 billion

-Wal-Mart with $206.3 billion in market capitalization.

What has recently pushed Apple's stock to another record high, and made all this possible, was the news that the iPad will finally be available for pre order next week, with deliveries of the highly anticipated device to follow early next month in the U.S., and a little later in the same month in markets such as my beloved Canada and Germany, and other markets such as the U.K., France, etc. also at the end of the same month.

Wow! What a far cry from the time when ten years or so ago, Dell's CEO, Michael Dell told a jeering crowd of reporters, something along the lines, "that the best thing that Jobs could do with Apple was to close it down and return the money to its investors!"

So, is Apple about to join the 200 Billion Dollar Club as the fourth largest public traded company in America?

The answer: most likely and very soon now!

Of course, stocks go up and down, so it could be any day now, or it could be a little way off, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's sooner than later, especially since it is already hovering around $198 billion, it could come as early as today or tomorrow!

In conclusion, since I've picked up a nasty bug, while visiting my adoptive mother in the hospital yesterday, and I am now as sick as a Chinese dog after eating a bucket full of contaminated hot dogs, I'll make this post a brief one and to say that I find Apple's recent market cap to be nothing short of simply amazing! When it comes to turning Apple around, well it's say to say that Jobs has gotten the job done of transforming this innovative American icon from not only a near certain death, but now into what is now not only today's fourth largest publicly traded company in America, but one of a very handful of companies that could ever hope and dream of joining that exclusive 200 Billion Dollar Market Cap Club!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Monday, March 08, 2010