Over the last few months, something interesting has been taking place in the stock market. Apple, who once had a stock price of over $700, has seen its stock price plummet to as low as the high 300s. Though Apple stock is back up to $460.71 at the close of business today, that’s nowhere near the high of $700. Google, on the other hand, has watched its stock skyrocket. Thanks to the continued success of Android, Google’s stock has shot up to several all-time highs so far in 2013, and it does not show any signs of slowing down.
At the close of business Monday, Google’s stock hit yet another all-time high. This time, the amount is $861.55. That’s up $16 and the highest stock Google has ever seen since it went public in 2004. In the past three years, Google’s stock has soared from around $100 to over $800. There was a brief lull at one point, but that ended in mid-2012 and things started growing again. What caused that skyrocket? Well, it seems quite obvious that Android played the biggest role in the sudden rise of Google stock.
Last year, Google made several improvements to Android that finally made it a viable competitor to Apple’s iPhone. For example, Project Butter was a feature that finally made Android just as smooth as iOS. Gone was the hint of lag that seemed to plague every Android device, no matter how many cores it had. Then, Google announced Google Now. Meant as a competitor to Siri, it quickly became evident that Google Now was much, much more capable than Apple’s Siri. Google Now could do many of the same things as Siri, but could also provide you with incredibly useful information such as what time you should leave for work and how long it will take you to get there. It was essentially a hub for all the information you’d ever need quickly.
It’s worth pointing out that Google’s market cap is still lower than Apple’s. Google’s comes in at $285 billion, while Apple’s is a whopping $433 billion.
Some analysts predict that the price of Google shares will hit a stunning $1000 by the end of the year. What do you think?
Source: Google Finance