U.S. President's tweets can spark a thousand questions, including whether the biggest company in the United States can maintain its current levels of growth.
On Saturday, the U.S. President tweeted Apple should move its manufacturing to the United States, renewing debate about the country's exposure to China and outlook.
Apple has reach a market capitalization of $1.1 trillion, compared to Samsung's $258.2 billion, Blackberry's $4.3 billion and HTC Corp's $988 million. Apple passed the trillion-dollar mark on August 2.
"It will be difficult to have much higher multiple from here," Toni Sacconaghi, senior technology analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said in an interview with CNBC on Monday.
Not everyone believes Apple's valuation has peaked.
"AAPL has held 15x-16x P/E since spring 2017 and we believe this can continue given 1) phone mix, 2) services momentum and 3) capital return," says Ananda Baruah, managing director at Loop Capital Markets, in a research note. "Our $256 price target is 16x the $16.00 normalized EPS we believe AAPL can generate by 2020 if they execute to capital return (which we believe could add $1.60 to EPS).
Jim Cramer's Action Alerts Plus charitable trust, which holds Apple, thinks momentum from services will continue.
"Even though the country's largest company by market cap is now in the cross-hairs of the trade dispute, we reiterate AAPL as a stock to 'own, not trade.'," said AAP research team in a note to subscribers.
Getting to the second trillion could mean significant transformation of a company and may take augmented reality and cars, according to Ming-Chi Kuo of Hong Kong-based TF International Securities.
James DePorre, CEO and founder of Shark Investments and Real Money contributor, said barring some type of business catastrophe he couldn't see Apple's price falling farther than between a $210 to $215 range, calling a drop below $210, a "major change in character and a warning sign that there is a significant problem."
DePorre said he believes the current trade rhetoric might slow Apple's advancing trend, but continued he didn't want to predict how high the stock would ultimately go.
"There isn't any reason to think a top is near," DePorre said.
- Martin Cassidy contributed reporting to this article.
