Apple Inc. shares reached a new milestone Wednesday, trading above $300 for the first time, as the electronics giant prepares to report quarterly results and preview a new operating system next week.

Shares of the Cupertino, Calif., company were at $300.14 on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 4 p.m. trading Wednesday, up $1.60 from Tuesday. The stock is up 43% for the year and 30 times its price seven years ago, on a split-adjusted basis.

Apple Wednesday invited reporters to its headquarters on Oct. 20, when it will unveil an update to the operating system that powers its Macintosh computers. The company plans to post its fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings Monday.

Analysts expect the company to report sales of nearly $19 billion and earnings of $4.05 a share, excluding items, for the September-ended quarter. A year earlier, it had quarterly revenue of $9.87 billion and a profit of $1.82 a share.

The quarter's results will be the second to include sales of the iPad tablet, released in April. Apple sold more than three million of the devices in its first quarter of availability, but rivals are preparing competing devices for the holiday season.

The popularity of Apple's iPhone 4 also will be examined Monday. Some analysts expect sales to exceed 11 million units.

Apple's success over the past decade has been built on gadgets that helped to redefine how users enjoy media and communicate with each other.

For fiscal 2003, Apple reported earnings of $1.7 billion on sales of $6.2 billion. On Monday, Apple is expected to report full-year earnings of $13.4 billion on sales of $63.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Shares in Apple were below $10 as recently as December 2003, on a split-adjusted basis. Since 2003, the stock has been on a rapid ascent. The stock first crossed $200 a year ago.

The surging stock has made Apple the second-most valuable company in the U.S., with a market value of roughly $275 billion, second only to ExxonMobil Corp.

Ian Sherr

• wednesday [´wenzdi] n.星期三 (初中英语单词)
• system [´sistəm] n.系统，体系，制度 (初中英语单词)
• headquarters [´hed,kwɔ:təz] n.总部(署)，司令部 (初中英语单词)
• holiday [´hɔlidi] n.假日，假期，节日 (初中英语单词)
• exceed [ik´si:d] v.超(胜)过；凌驾 (初中英语单词)
• valuable [´væljuəbəl, -jubəl] a.有价值的，贵重的 (初中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
• revenue [´revinju:] n.税收；收入 (高中英语单词)
• tablet [´tæblit] n.碑；牌；匾额 (高中英语单词)
• popularity [,pɔpju´læriti] n.普及；流行；名望 (高中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• communicate [kə´mju:nikeit] vi.通讯；传达；传播 (高中英语单词)
• ascent [ə´sent] n.上升；攀登；上坡路 (高中英语单词)
• roughly [´rʌfli] ad.粗糙地；毛糙地 (高中英语单词)
• earnings [´ə:niŋz] n.收益；报酬；获得 (英语六级单词)
• fiscal [´fiskəl] a.财政的 (英语六级单词)