2024-01-03 03:45:00
Apple shares closed down 3.6% on its first trading day of 2024 at $185.64, its lowest closing level since November 13, following Barclays analyst Tim Long said the stock “it’s time to take a breather,” noting that the The company’s hardware sales have been weak, with demand for the iPhone 15 disappointing.
Apple Inc. AAPL shares are off to a lower start to 2024 following Barclays analyst Tim Long said it’s “time for the stock to take a breather,” pointing to weak hardware sales and disappointing iPhone 15 demand. .
“We continue to see weak sales and product mix performance for iPhone, and no improvement for Mac, iPad and wearables,” Long wrote in a note to clients. “The main conclusion drawn from the latest channel survey is that the data of iPhone 15 in the Chinese market is getting worse, while developed markets remain weak.”
He downgraded the stock to “underweight” from “neutral” and lowered his target price to $160 from $161. The new target price is 14.6% lower than Apple’s current stock price.
Apple shares fell 3.6% to $185.64 on Tuesday, their lowest closing level since November 13. This is also Apple’s largest single-day decline since September 7, 2023, when it fell 2.9%.
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Apple Inc. AAPL shares are off to a lower start to 2024 following Barclays analyst Tim Long said it’s “time for the stock to take a breather,” pointing to weak hardware sales and disappointing iPhone 15 demand. .
“We continue to see weak sales and product mix performance for iPhone, and no improvement for Mac, iPad and wearables,” Long wrote in a note to clients. “The main conclusion drawn from the latest channel survey is that the data of iPhone 15 in the Chinese market is getting worse, while developed markets remain weak.”
He downgraded the stock to “underweight” from “neutral” and lowered his target price to $160 from $161. The new target price is 14.6% lower than Apple’s current stock price.
Apple shares fell 3.6% to $185.64 on Tuesday, their lowest closing level since November 13. This is also Apple’s largest single-day decline since September 7, 2023, when it fell 2.9%.
Long said that the sales performance of iPhone 15 was “bleak” and believed that the sales of iPhone 16 will be the same. He expects other hardware categories to remain weak. It’s time for Apple stock to take a breather, he said. He doesn’t think the stock can continue to rise on weak demand data like it did in 2023.
“We expect a correction in Apple’s stock price following most quarterly earnings misses over the past year while the stock outperformed the broader market,” Long wrote.
He expects Apple’s first fiscal quarter results ending in December 2023 to be in line with expectations, but he further lowered his forecast for the company’s second quarter results to below average expectations.
Long now expects earnings and revenue to fall by a low-single-digit percentage in Apple’s fiscal second quarter ending in March, while the average FactSet forecast is for earnings to rise 2.6% to $1.57 per share and revenue to rise. 1.1% to $95.8 billion.
Apple’s stock price surged 48.2% in 2023, almost double the S&P 500 index’s 24.2% gain during the same period, even though Apple’s revenue fell year-on-year in each fiscal quarter of fiscal 2023 that ended in September. The company fell 3.7% on January 3, 2023, before starting a rally in 2023.
Of the 44 analysts surveyed by FactSet, Long is one of only four who are bearish on Apple’s stock, compared with 27 (61%) who are bullish on Apple’s stock and have a neutral view. There are 13 people. Long’s price target for Apple is $160, 19.2% lower than the average price target of $197.92 given by analysts surveyed.
(This article is translated from MarketWatch. MarketWatch is operated by Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, but MarketWatch is independent from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.)
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