“Apple Inc. was downgraded Tuesday to underperform from market perform by Morgan Keegan, which cited mounting evidence of broad weakness in consumer technology spending in both the U.S. and Europe,” Tomi Kilgore reports for Thomson Financial.
“Analyst Tavis McCourt said that upside potential in the stock if the company’s Mac business continues to outperform is outweighed by the downside risk if growth begins to slow,” Kilgore reports.
“‘We believe the company will still take share in its Mac and iPhone product lines, but we expect PC industry growth expectations to dampen Apple’s Mac growth as the year progresses,’ McCourt said in a research note. ‘Additionally, we are slightly lowering our iPod expectations given the likely economic sensitivity of this product line and creeping competitive threats,'” Kilgore reports.
Full article here.
Poor Tavis obviously couldn’t analyze his way out of a wet paper bag. The real risk here is in listening to analysts employed by second-tier regional firms who fall hook, line, and sinker for ginned up election year efforts to talk down the economy* while ignoring and/or not comprehending what’s really happening at Apple Inc.
*Which, of course, can become self-fulfilling prophesies. Still, we require proof that any weakness in consumer technology spending is actually impacting Apple negatively rather than positively. For example, perhaps any threat of “recession” will cause people to spend their technology dollars much more wisely, thereby getting themselves Macs which run all of the world’s software and also retain their value far better than run-of-the-mill PCs? There are a lot of variables in play here and McCourt is out of touch with, frankly, better analysts who cover Apple.
Of the 28 analyst firms making recommendations on Apple Inc. (AAPL) stock today, as covered by NASDAQ:
• 8 – Strong Buy
• 16 – Buy
• 3 – Hold
And only one, little ol’ Morgan Keegan, says “Underperform.”
What a fscktard.
Good Take, MDN.
We’ll see what happens on the 23rd. Hopefully 3Q guidance will not frighten wall street.
No big whoop. My girlfriend downgraded me the same way….
Oh, let these moron analysts downgrade Apple a little bit longer so I can get a bit more shares for my money. This guy probably still believes Apple will be going out of business in 1998.
♪♫♪♫
La la la la
Eric Willard is a moron.
Billy Gates is a moron.
Steve Ballmer is a moron.
Tavis McCourt is a moron.
♪♫♪♫
They got some external expert information on this….from Laura Goldman.
MDN: “ginned up election year efforts to talk down the economy”
Who writes this stuff? Rush Limbaugh?
We lose 220,000 jobs in 3 months, have the worst housing decline in decades, and the dollar is lower than it has been in decades, and someone’s making all this up?
You’re fscking delusion, man.
Whether it will affect APPL is one thing, but to deny it is just foolishness.
username,
Follow the asterisk:
Ginned up election year efforts to talk down the economy*
*Which, of course, can become self-fulfilling prophesies
Say and print “recession” enough and you can create one. This happens almost every election year from the opposition that are trying to get a change of party in the White House.
So, this year, blame the Dems for the so-called “recession.”
Citing projected economic weakness (which is possible… though I think concerns are overblown as well) is at least a defensible position. Contrast with all the “ipod and iphone are dying” bs at the beginning of the year… which were both wrong AND failed to mention amazing growth in Apple’s most important and profitable business.
But really… it’s all a process to get the stock out of weak hands and into those who deserve the ride up.
Whether they are right or wrong, it brings AAPL down. If they are wrong, what brings them down??…NOTHING!!! There should be some penalty for analysts being wrong.
usename
There all always some bad details in the economy, no matter how ‘smooth’ it may seem to be going. There are some big ones right now
Just like a family car on a vacation, you try to keep in mind all that can go wrong, but you may still have a blow-out. This doesn’t have to derail the trip, you just need to fix it, don’t bitch at the wife and kids, and go on.
I just hope the Fed remembers to tighten the lug nuts….
Well I guess time will tell who is right and who is wrong. Perhaps a couple of quarters will give us the truth of the matter.
Buy Buy Buy APPL!
“Say and print “recession” enough and you can create one”
while that is in fact true, the raw econ data says you are a moron in this case. i have the advantage of hanging out with economists on a regular basis, and the simple fact is that bush and his ecoli conservativism have created a near perfect market storm. several of the top economists for the fortune 100 company my wife works for are amazed by the feds ability to have held off disaster as long as they have. we came dangerously close to great depression take 2 in the last few months.
He would be right if the Mac and PC were ‘complementary’ goods (cars & petrol), but they are ‘competitive’ goods (cars & public transport).
As the PC makers predict woe, it might be that Apple is eating their lunch.
“election year efforts to talk down the economy”…yep, that’s straight from the Democrats’ playbook. McCain certainly isn’t pandering to the electorate with that crap. F Obama and Hillary.
The liberal media repeats all of the Democrat talking points word for word no questions asked. They hate Republicans and will do and say anything to beat them. They even hate each other which is fun to watch with Hillary and Obama. The liberals would ruin the economy to get their person in office. The sad thing is they will ruin this country and the economy with their out of control liberalism. They want to make the US a socialist or communist country. They are out of their minds.
“Morgan Keegan downgrades Apple to ‘underperform’ “
Who cares what they think. I want Zune tang’s take on Apple not Morgan Freeman’s.
Proud American and legal immigrant. Yeah, what Proud American wrote.
Fscking incredible. It’s just amazing the contortions you fscking retarded neocon cheerleaders put yourselves into to blame the Democrats for whatever bullshit the retarded necons in control got us into. Add some sword swallowing (a favorite hobby of conservatives, I hear (not that there’s anything wrong with that)) and you guys could take your show on the road and make some money.
Never even heard of Morgan Keegan. Never heard them on any Apple conference call.
Moron Freakan are just mad at themselves for missing this upswing and are trying to create a buying opportunity. … for themselves and anyone else who can see it for what it is.
Time to buy some more AAPL.
I remember when Steve Jobs faced recession back at the start of the century. He didn’t deny it, he didn’t pooh-pooh it, or anything like that.
He looked it straight in the eye and said, “We will innovate our way through it!”
And that is just what he and Apple did.
They will do it again.
Plus, analysts often forget that during hard times, the entertainment industry flourishes. Apple has a big bite in the that industry.
MDW “required” as in innovation is required
From “Proud American”:
“The liberal media repeats all of the Democrat talking points word for word no questions asked. They hate Republicans and will do and say anything to beat them. They even hate each other which is fun to watch with Hillary and Obama. The liberals would ruin the economy to get their person in office. The sad thing is they will ruin this country and the economy with their out of control liberalism. They want to make the US a socialist or communist country. They are out of their minds.”
Now that’s delusional.
Morgan Keegan’s track record is a bit suspect:
“Mark & Associates, P.C. is representing investors who lost money investing in two Regions Morgan Keegan open end bond mutual funds, the Morgan Keegan Select Intermediate Bond Fund (RIBCX) and the Morgan Keegan Select High Income Fund (MKHIX). Year to date, the Morgan Select Intermediate Bond Fund is down 50.5 percent and the Morgan Keegan Select High Income Fund is down 59.7 percent. Mark & Associates, P.C. is also representing investors in several Morgan Keegan closed end funds: RMK High Income Fund (RMH), RMK Strategic Income Fund (RSF), MK Multi Sector High Income Fund (RHY) and RMK Advantage Income Fund (RMA). These closed end funds have lost a tremendous amount of value, with some trading 75% below their 52 week highs.”
They may wish they had kept their heads down.
I seem to recall that when Clinton left office there was a projected surplus. Ill-conceived tax-cuts that benefits mainly people with 7-figure income, an ill-conceived and incompetently conducted war, and a lack of regulation are products of right-wing ideology. Greed isn’t inherently self-regulatory. Who could have imagined that?