Apple Is Now The Most Valuable Company Of All Time

NEW YORK – Shares are rising again, continuing the sharp run-up of the past few weeks that has propelled the tech juggernaut to its all-time high.

The stock recently rose 1.8 percent at $660, pushing Apple?s market capitalization up to $619 billion, FactSet data show. The previous historical record for top market cap belonged to Microsoft, whose market value topped out at $616.3 billion in December 1999, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Now Apple holds the distinction as the most valuable company by market capitalization.

Apple?s market cap is also more than $200 billion greater than Exxon Mobil ? the second biggest company right now clocking in at $405 billion. Microsoft, Wal-Mart and IBM round out the top five.

Rumors of new iPhone and iPad products have been running rampant of late, helping to give shares their latest boost. Many analysts anticipate an iPhone 5 launch is coming in September.

Last week, Jefferies boosted its price target on Apple to $900. Earlier this year, two firms slapped $1,000 price targets on the company, while predicting Apple?s market cap will top $1 trillion.

Apple?s sway on major benchmark indexes has been well documented for much of the year. But the latest figures from Silverblatt underscore just how important Apple?s rally is for the rest of the market.

The S&P 500′s tech sector is up 16 percent since October 2007 when the broad market hit its all-time peak, he says. But stripping away Apple from the calculation and the sector is down 3.7 percent throughout that same time frame.

UPDATE: There is some discrepancy about whether Apple really is the world?s most valuable company of all time. Associated Press reports China?s largest oil company, PetroChina, was briefly worth $1 trillion after it listed on the Shanghai stock exchange in 2007. But that market value was only based on the price on that exchange. Its shares also trade in Hong Kong and on the New York Stock Exchange. The company?s market capitalization never went as high as $500 billion on those exchanges.