Apple eyes return of $100m worth shares

Just months from the launch of Apple’s first new product category since the death of Steve Jobs and amid renewed confidence in the sustainability of the iPhone’s sales, Apple’s share price touched above $97 in intraday trading last week, FT.com reported.

A return to its peak as the world’s most valuable company would be a moment of vindication for Tim Cook, who succeeded Jobs as chief executive in August 2011, but raises the stakes as he guides the company into a new phase of innovation.

This autumn is expected to see the launch of a new, larger iPhone and a wearable fitness tracker. Analysts at Morgan Stanley gave a vote of confidence in Apple’s first new product line since the iPad in 2010 last week, predicting that the so-called iWatch could sell as many as 60m units in its first year, generating sales of $18bn.

“We view the Apple ‘halo effect’ rather than the current watch market as the more accurate predictor of iWatch sales,” Morgan Stanley said, basing its estimate on previous growth rates of “iDevices” such as the iPad.