When you look at Apple today, it's this nearly $4 trillion juggernaut that feels like the ultimate safe bet for every retirement fund on the planet. But honestly, if you were holding Apple stock back in the year 2000, you weren't feeling like a genius. You were probably feeling like you’d been punched in the gut. Multiple times.
The year 2000 was a brutal, messy, and frankly terrifying time for the apple share price in 2000. It was the year the music stopped for the dot-com bubble, and Apple didn't just stumble—it fell off a cliff. We aren't talking about a "bad quarter." We're talking about a single-day drop that wiped out half the company's value.
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The Euphoria Before the Fall
Coming into 2000, things looked pretty great. Steve Jobs had been back for a few years, the colorful iMac G3 was a hit, and the "Think Different" campaign was everywhere. The stock had surged 151% in 1999. Investors were high on the idea that the internet was going to change everything, and Apple was the cool kid at the party.
By early 2000, the stock was trading at levels that, when adjusted for the many splits since then, look like pocket change—but at the time, it was hitting highs around $150 per share (pre-split). People were convinced it was headed for the moon.
Then March happened.
The Nasdaq peaked and started to roll over. While some of the more "vaporware" internet companies vaporized instantly, Apple held on for a bit. There was even a 2-for-1 stock split on June 21, 2000. For a moment, it felt like maybe, just maybe, Apple was immune to the carnage.
Black Friday: September 29, 2000
If there is one date that defines the apple share price in 2000, it’s September 29.
The day before, after the market closed, Apple did something that every investor dreads: they issued an early earnings warning. They basically told the world that their fourth-quarter results were going to be "substantially below expectations."
The reasons?
- Poor back-to-school sales.
- Weak demand for the Power Mac G4 Cube (which looked cool but was a bit of a flop).
- A general slowing of the PC market in Europe.
The reaction was a bloodbath. When the opening bell rang on September 29, the stock didn't just dip—it cratered. It fell 51.89% in a single day.
Imagine waking up and seeing half of your investment gone before lunch. The price plummeted from $53.50 (pre-split) to around $25.75. It was the worst single-day percentage drop in the company's history. Market pundits were falling over themselves to downgrade the stock. Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Fortuna famously moved Apple from "Accumulate" to "Neutral," suggesting the problems were just beginning. He wasn't entirely wrong in the short term.
Why the Apple Share Price in 2000 Was a Rollercoaster
You've got to understand the context of the time. The dot-com bubble wasn't just about stocks being expensive; it was about a complete loss of reality. When Apple missed its targets, it wasn't just a miss—it was seen as proof that even the "stable" tech companies were a sham.
The stock continued to bleed through the rest of the year. By the end of December 2000, shares were trading at around $7 (adjusted for splits), a far cry from the highs seen just months earlier.
The numbers are pretty staggering:
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- Year High: Around $150 (Pre-split)
- Year Low: Under $14 (Pre-split / roughly $7 adjusted)
- Market Cap: It shriveled to around $5 billion. For context, they now sometimes lose $5 billion in market cap during a particularly boring Tuesday afternoon.
Lessons from the Rubble
Looking back at the apple share price in 2000 offers some perspective that most "get rich quick" traders miss. If you had bought at the peak in early 2000, you would have spent the next three or four years underwater. The stock didn't truly start its legendary ascent until 2004-2005, when the iPod finally took over the world.
The big takeaway? Even the greatest companies in history can have "lost years."
If you're looking at today's market and feeling nervous, remember that in 2000, Apple was being written off as a niche player with no future. The "experts" were wrong. The panicked sellers were wrong. But the people who held on—or better yet, bought more when the stock was at $7—ended up owning a piece of the most successful corporate turnaround in human history.
What you should do now
If you are researching historical prices to inform your current strategy, keep these insights in mind:
- Check Adjusted vs. Nominal Prices: When looking at 2000 data, always clarify if you're looking at "split-adjusted" prices. Because of the 2-for-1 split in 2000 (and several others since), a $15 price tag in an old archive might actually represent a much higher value in today's terms.
- Zoom Out: One bad year, even one as catastrophic as 2000, doesn't define a company's terminal value. If the fundamentals (like the transition to Mac OS X which was happening then) are solid, the price usually catches up.
- Watch the "Whisper" Numbers: Apple's 2000 crash was triggered by an earnings miss. Always pay more attention to a company's guidance than its past performance; the market trades on the future, not the past.
The story of Apple in 2000 isn't a story of failure; it's a story of a "perfect storm" meeting a company that was still finding its footing. It serves as a reminder that in the world of investing, the darkest hour really is often just before the dawn.