On Thursday this week, Apple’s stock price not only went up by $16.49 to close at $493.17 but it also hit a milestone in terms of market capitalization by surpassing the market cap of Google and Microsoft put together with a market cap of $460 billion.

Talks of the new iPad 3 have sent Apple stock close to the $500 mark as many analysts expected at the end of 2011. I had already mentioned that stock price was helped greatly when Apple announced one of the most profitable quarters last month.

What do stock analysts have to say about when to sell?

A lot of stock analysts and mutual fund managers are pretty bullish on Apple stock and think it can do better than $500. According to Thomson Reuters, investors should aim to sell at $565.13 a share if they want to make the maximum profit.

A lot of analysts are now readjusting what they think is a good price target for Apple stock with investment bank Needham and Company analyst Charlie Wolf increasing the price target from an earlier $540 to an optimistic $620 because he feels that the tablet market is expanding.

There have been a lot of analysts that have felt that Apple stock will hit even $600 this year with Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley increasing his price target from $650 to $665 because iPhone 4S sales were more than he projected. Further, Abhey Lamba of Mizuho Securities also agrees with the mid $600 range.

There are even reports that Apple could hit the $1000 mark. But at this point we really can’t rule anything out because the growth has been pretty outrageous.