How strong is Apple? We reveal five eye-opening statistics

After a rare earnings miss in Q3, normal service was resumed for Apple yesterday as the US tech giant's Q4 2011 profits easily beat analyst expectations.

The company reported a doubling of net profit to just over $13bn for a period it terms its fiscal first quarter, during which it sold 37 million iPhones.

Apple shares hit a fresh record high of $454.44 at the start of trading yesterday, and have now risen by 31% over the past 12 months and 424% over the past five years.

Here are five further statistics that put Apple's financial strength in a wider context:

- Apple's quarterly per-share profit of $13.87 is more than it made in any full year prior to 2010, according to Bloomberg.

- With a market cap of around $419bn, Apple is now once again the largest company in the world by that metric, overtaking ExxonMobil's market cap of just under $415bn.

- That market capitalisation is larger than Greece's total GDP in 2010 and more than twice as much as Ireland's GDP over the same period.

- The price of a single Apple share, at around $450, is now worth almost as much as the lowest-spec iPad ($499).

- According to Bespoke Investment Group, Apple's $96.7bn cash pile is larger than the market capitalisation of 474 companies in the S&P 500.