“Shares of Apple Computer Inc. fell in premarket Monday trading after a Citigroup analyst downgraded the maker of the iPod and Macintosh computer, discouraged by the lack of new products before the peak holiday season,” The Associated Press reports.
AP reports, “Richard Gardner reduced his rating to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy,’ saying Apple is unlikely to introduce a new video iPod with a larger screen and a virtual click wheel before the peak holiday season. The new iPods announced last month appear to comprise the company’s entire holiday collection.”
“Also on the product front, Gardner said that volume availability of an Apple-branded mobile phone is unlikely until the first quarter, or early in the second quarter. This phone is also likely to see sales limited to the U.S. market during the first six to 12 months, and is going to be relatively expensive,” AP reports. “Looking ahead, Gardner predicts revenue growth to slow, from 37 percent in fiscal 2006 to 20 percent in fiscal 2007 and 12 percent in fiscal 2008.”
Full article here.
Why not just drop Apple straight to “Sell” because it’s also unlikely that Apple will introduce a Tricorder before the end of the decade and because Steve Jobs eschewed a mock turtleneck for a button-down shirt during his last keynote presentation, both of which are so damn discouraging that we can hardly keep typ…
(Gardner must have dropped the crystal ball he normally uses for growth rate predictions, run over it multiple times with a steamroller, vacuumed up the glass dust, then removed the bag and dropped it into the incinerator. Gardner’s reasoning in this report takes speciousness to a whole new level (and that’s really saying something for a Wall Street analyst). The current iPod lineup will be just fine (in fact, better than just fine) for the holidays. Apple is primed to have their best quarter in the company’s history this holiday quarter on both the Mac and the iPod fronts. (But, if this creates a decent buying opportunity near-term, we’re not complaining.) We’re saving this one from Gardner and we will definitely revisit it upon results of fiscal 2007 and 2008.)
MacDailyNews Note: Q4 06 Apple Quarterly Earnings Call is scheduled for 10/18/2006 after market close.
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Apple climbs in pre-market trading after ThinkEquity raises target price to $100 – September 25, 2006
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