Monday Apple The stock was downgraded again. As of press release, the stock price fell by more than 3.7%, falling below the $200 threshold. Since the latest financial report was released last Friday, the company's share price has fallen by more than 10%.
Rosenblatt Securities will Apple The stock rating was downgraded from buy to neutral The target share price was lowered by 3.6% to $200. Rosenblatt worried that the increase in the price of the iPhone in the second half of 2019 could not offset the decline in its sales, and lowered Apple's production and transportation expectations in the fourth quarter.
Analyst Jun Zhang wrote, "The fourth quarter guidance confirms our view that the sales and output of iPhone XS/XR will be lower than expected.". Jun Zhang said, "iPhone Max has a good sales volume, which may help to increase the average selling price and gross profit margin, but we believe that Apple's ASP will be difficult to grow in the second half of 2019."
Last Friday, Apple was downgraded by several investment banks after it announced its latest financial report. Bank of America Merrill Lynch Cut Apple's rating from buy to neutral, and cut its target price from $235 to $220. Morgan Stanley The target price for Apple was lowered from $247 to $226.
Wamsi Mohan, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, believes that "the risk brought by the weak macroeconomic environment has increased" and lists four reasons for the downgrade:
Apple App Store revenue growth slowed down, especially in China; The fourth quarter guidance suggests that iPhone sales may be lower than expected; Investors may interpret iPhone sales data as negative; The strengthening of the US dollar may lead to slower growth in emerging markets.
Last Thursday, Apple's financial report showed that although the earnings per share (EPS) was better than expected, and the overall operating income and service business income such as App Store reached the highest record in a single quarter, the iPhone sales and service business income were lower than the market expectations, and the year-on-year growth slowed down, while the iPad and Mac sales were both negative. More importantly, in the fourth quarter of the heavy shopping season at the end of the year, the median value of Apple's revenue guidance was lower than the market expectation.
Last Friday, Apple's share price fell 6.6%, the largest one-day decline since January 2014. Apple's market value fell by $71.19 billion in one day, once falling below the trillion dollar mark. As of last Friday, Apple's share price had fallen for the fifth consecutive week, the first time since 2012.
In September this year, Apple released three new iPhones - iPhone XR, XS, and XS MAX. The starting price of the iPhone XS MAX exceeded $1000, making it the most expensive iPhone in history.
The average price of the iPhone in the third quarter has reached $793, exceeding $700 for four consecutive quarters, a record high this year. JPMorgan Chase It was pointed out that, as in the second quarter, Apple's operating income in the third quarter was driven not by sales but by selling prices. JPMorgan Chase believes that Apple has successfully developed a premium pricing strategy to promote revenue growth through the continuous rise of prices.
However, recently, the iPhone XR and XS have been exposed to overall order cutting, and Apple's high price strategy does not seem to work. According to the Nikkei News, Apple has told its smartphone assemblers Foxconn and Asustek to suspend plans to add new specialized production lines for the iPhone XR launched this month. Apple also asked Wistron, a smaller iPhone assembler, to be ready to accept urgent orders, but not for iPhone XR. Securities Daily quoted dealers as saying that the sales volume of iPhone XS has been much lower than expected since its listing due to the high price.
In addition, although CEO Cook is still optimistic about the Indian market, the authoritative organization Counterpoint said that the price of the iPhone is getting higher and higher, but its functions and specifications are not so attractive. In addition, the number of Android users has increased significantly. In the holiday season of the fourth quarter, Apple's iPhone sales in India are expected to decline by about a quarter, or lead to a decline in the annual sales in India, which will be the first time in four years.
Editor in charge: Zhang Guoshuai
