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By Malcolm Owen
Monday, November 5, 2018, 07:58 (PT) (10:58 ET)
The Apple stock price was up at the start of Monday's session after analysts at two investment companies downgraded the iPhone maker following the release of the latest results quarterly. Analysts were pessimistic about shipping figures and lack of data.
The iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max
On Thursday, Apple recorded slightly higher shipments than the previous year for the iPhone, rising from 46.7 million to 46.9 million iPhone during the three-month period. The result was in the lower part of its planned scale, below the company's forecast of 47.5 million shipments.
Despite slumping shipments, Apple has managed to raise the average selling price (iPhone) from $ 617.99 to $ 793 in one year, which has increased the iPhone turnover of 28.8 billion last quarter to $ 37.2 billion this quarter. This did not seem to be enough to satisfy some investment firms and analysts, who focused more on deliveries than on reported earnings and could have influenced the opinions of other investors.
At the time of publication, AAPL was worth $ 199.50 per share. This places Apple well below the market capitalization of $ 1 trillion, and the price itself at the levels seen last August.
Rosenblatt Securities, Jun Zhang, demoted Apple's title in a note Friday from Buy to Neutral, reports the daily CNBC, informing its customers that it would be difficult for Apple to offset lower volumes by higher selling prices for the second half of 2019.
"Calendar's fourth quarter forecast reflects our cautious view of a lower-than-expected reduction in sales and production cuts for the iPhone XS and the iPhone XR," writes Zhang. "We're downgrading to the neutrality."
Zhang's pessimistic view was shared on Friday by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who also downgraded Apple from Buy to Neutral. The reasons for this downgrade include slower growth in the App Store business, as forecasts for the December quarter imply weaker-than-expected iPhone unit sales and lower growth in emerging markets due to a stronger dollar.
There is also a complaint about Apple's decision to change its reports in that the company will no longer include unit sales of product categories such as the iPhone in its results. According to Merrill Lynch, investors "will likely interpret iPhone unit sales figures as negative".
Since the publication of the last quarterly results, high transaction volumes have been observed at Apple, which could be due to the change in reporting.
Rosenblatt has maintained the price target for Apple at $ 200, while Merrill Lynch has reduced its price target for 12 months from $ 235 to $ 220.
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