Apple share price: Company to invest €1.7 billion in European data centres

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is planning to spend €1.7 billion to build two data centres in Ireland and Denmark, in what is poised to become the largest-ever European investment by the US tech giant. The two centres would be powered entirely by renewable energy, Apple announced today in a press release on its website.

“This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date,” said the company’s chief executive officer Tim Cook. “We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”
The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, will measure 166,000 square metres each and are expected to commence operations in 2017. They will allow the Cupertino-based company to comply with requests for data to be stored closer to local users and authorities. The centres will power Apple’s online services, including App Store, iTunes, iMessage, Siri and Maps for European customers.

The new centres will also allow Apple to save on equipment-cooling costs, as they will be built at locations with a predominantly colder climate. The same approach has been used by other US tech giants, which have chosen locations such as Finland and Sweden for their own data centres.
In Friday’s trading, Apple shares closed up 0.8 percent at $129.49, extending their year-to-date advance to 17.3 percent. The company’s market capitalisation currently stands at $754.3 billion.

According to the Financial Times, the 41 analysts offering 12 month price targets for Apple Inc. have a median target of $135.00, with a high estimate of $160.00 and a low estimate of $60.00. As of February 20, 2015, the consensus forecast amongst 53 polled investment analysts covering Apple has it that the company will outperform the market. This stance has been maintained since September 29, 2011, when the sentiment of investment analysts deteriorated from “buy”, the FT notes.
As of 14:34 GMT, Monday, 23 February, Apple Inc. share price is $129.50.