“Apple Inc is expected to report its first year-over-year decline in iPhone unit sales when it reports second-quarter earnings after the market close on Tuesday,” Jennifer Booton reports for MarketWatch.
“Several analysts have lowered iPhone estimates in recent weeks, citing weak outlooks from Apple suppliers such as Jabil Circuit Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. and checks within Apple’s supply chain that indicate weak iPhone builds,” Booton reports. “Analysts on average are expecting Apple to report iPhone unit sales of 50 million for its most recent quarter, which would mark a decline from 61 million in the year-earlier period.”
“Compounding these issues are signs people are upgrading their phones less frequently than they used to, a slowdown in demand in China, and expectations that the new iPhone 5SE and Apple Watch are selling below expectations,” Booton reports. “Despite the concerns, however, the average rating on the stock among a poll of roughly 40 analysts surveyed by FactSet is the equivalent to buy.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This quarter is the toughest compare with the pent-up and therefore outsized iPhone 6/Plus unit sales of last year. Everyone in-the-know expects there to be a decline.
I hope Apple had a kick ass 2Q.
Well said MDN. Those that analyze without context are idiots or purposeful manipulators. Years of pent up demand for a large phone caused a huge jolt in sales for that year, then normalized to regular growth. Intelligent people look at the trend over three years — it’s up and continues to grow. That’s good news.
I hear ya, itot. But anal-ysts are not “intelligent people”.
It’s time for someone to put up the quote from that legendary anal-yst Laura Goldman (where she put a “sell” on Apple many years ago). Then compare how much money was lost for those who took her moronic advice versus those of us who went long AAPL.
She did turn out to be slightly right. She said AAPL would go to 112 and we should all sell. That was about 2006 or so and during the Great Recession the stock went much lower. I held my equity and I like what has happened since.
Laura must be out of jail by now.
The only context is the share price.
There is no science to stock prices.
Get over yourself
When you “own” the vast % of the smartphone profits, a small change in quarterly sales doesn’t change things hardly at all.