Apple shares on Tuesday closed at their highest ever level as investors looked ahead to next month's iPhone 6 launch.
The Cupertino, Calif., tech company's shares ended at $100.53, up 1.4 percent for the day, and the highest closing level ever when adjusted for June's 7-for-1 stock split. Apple's previous high closing price of $702.10, or $100.30 adjusted for the split, came September 19, 2012 -- two days before the iPhone 5 went on sale.
Apple shares on Tuesday also neared their all-time high in regular trading. The stock hit its previous intraday high of $705.07, or $100.72 when adjusted for the stock split, on Sept. 21, 2012, the first day the iPhone 5 hit stores. Shares rose as high as $100.68 in midday trading Tuesday.
The high comes less than a month before Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 6 on September 9. The smartphone, which contributes to more than half of Apple's total revenue, serves as the lynchpin to its overall growth, particularly as the market awaits the widely speculated iWatch and as the iPad struggles against lower-cost rivals and larger phones. Apple shares have tended to climb ahead of product launches as investors hope to get ahead of big sales numbers.
See also Apple posts solid Q3 profit, but iPhone sales don't wow WWDC set the stage. Now Apple needs to deliver Don't freak out. Here's why Apple's stock is below $100 CNET's iPhone 6 rumor roundupApple shares had slid from their high in 2012 on worries that Apple CEO Tim Cook wouldn't be as successful as co-founder Steve Job at developing new blockbuster devices. Cook has promised several times over the past year that Apple would enter "exciting new product categories" in 2014. And in May, Eddy Cue, head of iTunes and the man behind Apple's $3 billion acquisition of headphone and streaming service Beats, upped the pressure by boasting that the consumer electronics giant is working on its "best product pipeline in 25 years."
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty earlier Tuesday recommended that her clients buy more Apple shares ahead of the iPhone 6 and iWatch product releases.
"Apple shares do not price in upcoming hardware, software, and services innovation," Huberty said. She noted that the new iPhone should gain market share and reaccelerate sales, while the iWatch -- which Apple so far hasn't acknowledged -- is "an underappreciated market opportunity with the potential for up to 60
