AAPL crosses 600 for the first time since Nov. 2012

Today Apple shares have officially crossed the $600 mark for the first time since back in November of 2012.

Following Apple’s earnings report late last month and the announcement it would increase share buybacks to $90 billion alongside a seven-to-one stock split, investors seem to be responding positively as the stock hovered close to $600 before finally crossing today. That’s up from the low $500’s it’s been floating around since October of last year, but not quite the high of $705 it hit in September of 2012 following the iPhone 5 introduction.

On top of a positive reaction from investors to its Q2 results and the new stock split decisions, last week Apple completed the sale of $12 billion in debt in order to raise cash for the buyback and avoid taxes associated with accessing its cash hoard overseas. It also follows a verdict in the high-profile Samsung vs Apple case in California in which Apple was awarded almost $120 million in damages.

The news also comes ahead of Apple’s WWDC developer conference scheduled for June 2 – 6 where Apple is expected to announce its first major new product announcements of the year. Apple quietly introduced updated MacBook Air models last week and dropped pricing, but it still has new MacBooks, iPads, iMacs and operating system releases in the pipeline.