Apple Inc market capitalization topped $500 billion.

 Sahit Muja, New York

Sahit Muja: Apple Inc market capitalization topped $500 billion.
Wednesday, AAPL's NASDAQ Last Sale $542.16  up $6.75, 1.26%c limbing to a mountain peak.
Apple is already the world's most valuable company.
The company's market capitalization was near $506 billion in late-morning trading as the shares rose $6.75, to $542.41.

In Tuesday, company sent out invites to reporters for an event in San Francisco next Wednesday, apparently to reveal its next iPad model. The launch of the new model was expected around this time, a year after the launch of the iPad 2.

Apple's rise, by contrast, is powered by its mammoth sales and profits, which are growing at rates unheard of for a company its size. And despite its sky-high market capitalization, Apple's shares aren't expensive compared to its earnings. It's worth 15 times its earnings for the last year. That compares to 21 times earnings for Google and 14 times for the S&P 500 overall.

Yet few companies in the index grow their earnings as fast as Apple does: In its latest quarter, its earnings rose 118% from a year ago, to $13.06 billion.
Apple has been helped by a general recovery in the stock market after the doldrums of the financial crisis and the recession. The S&P 500 index has posted its best February performance in 14 years, and on Tuesday, the

Dow Jones industrial average closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008.
Former CEO Steve Jobs, apparently haunted by the company's lean years in the 90s, had a policy of accumulating cash. The company now sits on $97.6 billion.
Sahit Muja
President and CEO
Albanian Minerals
New York