AAPL Apple Inc

   By Paul Vigna 
 

(Apple Inc. remained the largest U.S. company based on market capitalization at the close of trading on Thursday, despite having fallen behind Google's parent Alphabet Inc. during the trading day. Alphabet, which closed Thursday with a market capitalization of $494.79 billion, remained No. 2. "Alphabet Market Cap Tops Apple's, Takes Mantle of Largest Company" on Thursday at 6 p.m. EDT incorrectly said that Alphabet took the No. 1 spot as of Thursday's close with a market cap of $494.86 billion because of erroneous information from FactSet, the data provider. The article below replaces the previous one.)

The torch was passed, for a moment.

Alphabet Inc.'s market cap briefly surpassed that of Apple Inc. on Thursday to become the largest U.S. company based on market capitalization.

By the close, however, Apple, with a market cap of $494.83 billion, edged out Google parent Alphabet, which closed Thursday with a market capitalization of $494.79 billion.

Earlier this year, Alphabet surpassed Apple and held the market-cap crown for a day.

Apple shares have dropped 16 of the past 20 sessions, a stretch that included an 8-day losing streak that tied Apple's longest since 1998.

Thursday was also the first time in more than two years that Apple's market cap has been below $500 billion. In 2015, Apple became the first company ever to have a market cap above $700 billion, and in February of that year it crested at roughly $775 billion. It's been a slow fizzle since then.

At $90.32, Apple stock closed at its lowest point since June 24, 2014, when it closed at $90.28. The stock is down 14.2% so far this year and is off 32% from its all-time high of $133 set on Feb. 23, 2015 (when it set that market cap high).

Even though the investor community seems to have soured on the company, it remains wildly profitable. The company earned $10.52 billion in its most recent quarter. That's a number that any CFO would drool over.

Of course, that was down 23% from a year ago.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 16, 2016 15:16 ET (19:16 GMT)

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