Apple (AAPL – Research Report) shares tumbled 7% at the end of last week after the tech giant released its fiscal Q4 earnings report.
This was despite the fact that Apple beat out the Street’s predictions by 20% in the September quarter with revenue of $62.9 billion. The Street predicted $61.57 billion. EPS was $2.91, a 40 percent increase year-over-year. Wall Street expected only $2.78 per share.
So what caused investors to step back? Apple guided revenue for the holiday season of between $89 and $93 billion. With Wall Street expecting $93.02 billion, the middle-of-the-road guidance of $91 billion fell short of expectations, perturbing investors.
Meanwhile Apple also announced it will no longer be releasing its unit sales figures for iPhones, iPads and Macs. One analyst referred to the news as a “jaw dropper,” as “Apple is at the critical juncture where higher ASPs [average selling prices] are making up for slower unit sales, which remains the worry.”
In other words, if unit sales aren’t released then higher selling prices can mask the fact that unit sales are slowing.
A further blow
As if that wasn’t enough, two ratings downgrades caused a further blow to share prices. Indeed, the stock is now trading down 3% since last week.
The latest downgrade is from Rosenblatt Securities. It follows the decision of Bank of America Merrill Lynch to downgrade the stock on Friday.
“Calendar fourth-quarter guidance reflects our cautious view on weaker than expected sell-through and production reductions for iPhone XS/XR,” explained Rosenblatt analyst Jun Zhang (Track Record & Ratings). We “downgrade to neutral.”
The analyst continued: “The iPhone Max has been selling well and will most likely help increase average selling price and gross margin, but we believe it will be difficult for ASP to grow in the second half of calendar-2019.”
AAPL Supporters Stay Firm
