Apple’s stock has certainly been performing extremely well so far this year, reaching milestone after milestone. In fact, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, if Apple continues to perform as well, they could become the world’s first trillion dollar company by 2014.
In a note to clients issued early Tuesday, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster raised his Q2 iPhone estimate (to 33 million), set a new 12-month price target ($910 per share) and — most provocatively — laid out a roadmap for Apple’s (AAPL) market capitalization to go from $576.79 billion as of Monday’s close to $1 trillion by 2014.
That would be a first. The previous record for the largest market cap (price per share times number of shares) ever reached by a public company was $619 billion, set by Microsoft (MSFT) in 1999.
Munster sees shares in Apple rising to $1000 in 2014, which he says will be largely due to growth in earnings as their iPhone, iPad, and other product lines continue to grow in popularity and expand into markets with high growth potential, such as China.
The analyst also points out that his projection is based on Apple continuing to innovate over the next two years (via WSJ):
The key risk to the Apple story is pace of innovation. While we have not seen anything to make us believe innovation will slow, it is the fundamental barrier that stands between shares at $600 and $1,000.
Apple is currently trading at a record high of $631.71 per share at the time of this writing, and has risen over 56% since the year began.
