Apple once jostled with Microsoft for the kudos of being the world’s most valuable public company. Now the technology powerhouse has cemented its lead. In a brutal week for technology earnings, the iPhone maker defied a market justifiably sceptical of its ability to withstand a slowdown in demand from consumers squeezed by rising living costs.
Beating market expectations for sales and profit growth in the three months to September 24 — Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter — makes it an outlier among America’s technology powerhouses. Over one, three and five-year periods, the shares have outperformed all its fellow members of the Faang group (in which it is joined by Facebook’s owner Meta Platforms, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet, Google’s owner).
Apple is valued at a premium to
