Apple hits $500 a share after Carl Icahn tweets love for the company

Apple shares finally hit $500 for the first time since since January following news that billionaire Carl Icahn invested in the company.

Apple’s stock has been on a downward trend since the beginning of this year. It wasn’t helped much by its Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, which many conference-goers felt was lacking in “wow factor.” But despite this public reaction, Icahn says Apple is “extremely undervalued.”

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The billionaire, who is also currently attempting to take control of Dell, tweeted yesterday that he spoke with Apple chief executive Tim Cook and took a “large position” in the company. He also encourages Cook to hold a much bigger buyback of its stock and plans to speak with Cook again “shortly.”

Apple is already participating in a $60 billion buyback program. The company brought in $35.3 billion in revenue and beat its iPhone sales year over year with $31.2 million. Tablet sales, however, were worse year over year at $14.6 million.

Icahn’s tweets sent the company’s stock up 5 percent to $493, but investor excitement seems to have pushed the share price over the edge. The company closed at $498.50 today, though, it’s a significant enough increase from its performance for the past seven months.

AAPL data by YCharts