Apple, which began August by hitting $200 a share and crossing the trillion-dollar valuation mark the following day, hit another new all-time closing high of $227.63 on August 31.

The rally capped off an historic month for Apple, ahead of the expected arrival of a new iPhone lineup and other new hardware on Sept. 12. The price had reached as high as $228.78 on Friday morning.

The stock performance can best be attributed to lots of good news for the company and very little bad news.

Later in August, investor Warren Buffett announced that he had once again upped his Apple stake, and a leak appeared of two iPhone models that are expected as part of this fall's lineup of that key Apple product.