Apple shares rose 1.41% on Friday to close at $175.43, approaching a 52-week high

Apple shares closed Friday at $175.43, up $2.44 (+1.41%), near a 52-week high of $176.39 set on May 19 last year, CTOnews.com reported May 27.

Apple recently reported its latest earnings report for the fiscal second quarter of fiscal 2023 (ended March 31), with total revenue of $97.3 billion (currently about 688.884 billion yuan) and earnings per share of $2.34; this exceeded analysts 'expectations of $94.1 billion and $2.18 per share.

Apple announced it would return $90 billion to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends. Strong earnings and buyback announcements helped further boost investor sentiment toward the company.

The S & P 500 rose 8.1% in 2023, largely thanks to contributions from eight tech stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 21 percent, its best start since 1991, according to Dow Jones market data.

Microsoft announced in January that it was investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, which is up 36 percent so far. Apple, Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com all rose more than 33%.