Apple's market cap crosses $800 bn for first time

In yet another milestone, Apple's market capitalisation briefly soared past $800 billion threshold, making it the first company ever with such a mammoth valuation.

Apple's shares closed up 2.7 per cent for the day at $153.01 late on Monday, taking the company to a market value of $797.8 billion, Fortune reported.

Earlier, analyst Brian White from investment firm Drexel Hamilton raised his price target for Apple shares from $185 to $202 - implying a market value of over $1 trillion.

According to White, iPhone 8, repatriation of foreign cash and new innovations could bring more good news for Apple shares.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is the second most valuable company with a market cap of $653 billion, followed by Microsoft at $532 billion.

Apple sold 50.8 million iPhones in the first three months of 2017, down one per cent year-on-year, according to the company's second quarter results that came earlier in May.

CEO Tim Cook blamed a "pause" as customers wait for the next iPhone which is due to release later in 2017.

The dip in iPhone sales was offset by services, including Apple Pay, iCloud and the App store, which recorded an 18 per cent increase in sales to $7 billion.

Due to the robust sales of its iPhone 7 Plus, the revenue from iPhones climbed one per cent to $33.2 billion.