“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.”
I’d sy this guy has a good point. There are larger forces at work, and it’s not such a bad idea to be cautious.
Mac growth has been doubling the PC market for quite sometime now and will only grow further as Microsoft has just announced its latest OS won’t be available for at least another 3 years.Do we see anyone downgrading MS because of this? No, because they just don’t get it.This is just more manipulation of Apple’s stock when it should have passed the $200.00 a share mark long ago. Analist’s as I call them have no clue even when things are totally obvious.
Keegan no good.
“creeping competitive threats” to the iPod?
Maybe some market saturation will level off sales, but not competition.
I’m not really sure how Morgan Keegan gets hit with “second-tier”…I guess Bear Stearns is an example of a “first-tier” firm? I do feel quite certain that the staff at MDN haven’t bothered to actually look at the analysis done which led to his conclusions – that being a review of the spending trends of those consumers most likely to purchase Apple products. They tend to be the higher-end more affluent spenders along with young people (high-school to 24) who have some discretionary spending. The last few reports I saw from the “first-tier” firms like JPMorgan and Lehman would indicate that there is a marked downturn in this type of spending based on credit card receivables for the quarter ending on April 1. The trend should only strengthen as teens finish school for the summer only to find no jobs for them, leaving them to choose between “must-haves” such as gas for their cars and clothing vs. “wants”, such as a new iPod or even iTunes downloads. Its quite funny to see MDN and the posting trolls jump all over anything that is even mildly critical of Apple. Did anyone actually read what he said or just the MDN spin:
“‘We believe the company will still take share in its Mac and iPhone product lines….”
“Additionally, we are slightly lowering our iPod expectations given the likely economic sensitivity of this product line…”
He’s basically saying that relative to others in the field, Apple continues to dominate their markets, but that the field as whole will slow down. In other words, Apple remains on top – just that they will be hit by the same forces that EVERYONE will get hit with.
And as Zeke pointed out…
“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…”
Compare that performance with similar competing funds at Fidelity or T. Rowe Price and the Lipper Average. He actually beat all three. Just like the the MDN take, we just quote random facts on here and disregard relativity.
Maybe you guys could update the website to “www.macdailyapplecandonowrongblogthatposesasanewsite.com”
At least then you’d tell people what they’re actually going to see when they visit.
Peace Out – A-Town.
Someone owns MSFT shares…
Or DELL
@Proud American:
The neocon media repeats all of the Neocon talking points word for word no questions asked. They hate anybody who isn’t Neocon and will do and say anything to beat them. They even hate other Republicans who don’t goosestep with them, which is fun to watch with so-called evangelicals and McCain. The neocons HAVE ruined the economy to keep their persons in office. The sad thing is they will ruin this country and the economy with their out of control spend-and-spend policies. Plus they have ruined the US image in the rest of the world with their attitude that Americans don’t have to abide by the rules they violently push on other countries. They don’t care that the creation of a war under false pretenses for the benefit of their “base” is illegal, immoral, and makes them war criminals. They want to make the US a fascist country with civil liberties only for Neocon government officials. They are out to create the new American Civil War, because normal rational people are fed up with it, and demand a change. And by God, one way or another, they will get it.
Morgan Keegan is a bucket-shop. Google it if you don’t know what that means. They are also a market maker in AAPL. I’m betting they are under quite a bit of water short AAPL April calls. Hope they get what’s coming to them. Shame on you M-K….
…. 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.
The precipitous decline in these funds was the result of their large investments in illiquid securities known as: Collateralized Bond Obligations (CBOs), Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs), and Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs). These securities rarely trade and have no active quotations. However, the illiquidity of these securities did not stop the funds from continuing to purchase them. To make matters worse, the funds invested heavily in CMOs based on subprime mortgages. In the summer of 2007, the subprime mortgage crisis began as defaults and foreclosures began to reach record numbers. As as result, many of the securities that held these types of mortgages lost a tremendous amount of their value or became completely worthless
@username – according to Bloomberg radio last night, the reports that came in yesterday indicate consumer spending and outlook have not been negatively effected to date. Whether that will change or not, I don’t know — that’s forecasting. But as of yesterday looking back to the last quarter, there hasn’t been much slowdown in consumer activity.
I know lots of the rags around the country are forecasting gloom and doom, but it’s not the case right now. Yes, we had three straight quarters of job losses, but they are marginal compared to past recessions.
I just spent 45 minutes troubleshooting a top of the range laptop running Vista.
First thing I did was buy another 500 APPL because I had all the evidence I needed in those 45 minutes to know for sure that Apple Macs are going to take over from that sows ear.
Good post Zeke, sounds like they’re just incompetents.
The credit crunch as already affected the economy. No one can deny that.
It is realistic to conclude that sales of Apple products will be lower in this environment than a more optimistic one.
Despite this Apple will still be performing well. Hopefully over 2M macs will be sold this quarter. If the economy was booming that number could have been 2.5M.
The opportunity will be for Apple to gain market share without compromising their profitability and to demonstrate that innovation is the best way to combate a recession.
If this dolt is taken seriously then it is time to:
>>rubbing hands together in maniacal glee<<
Watch Apple stock plummet and BUY BUY BUY!
I fully expect Apple to once again become the stock market’s refuge while all around them decline. I easily predict Apple stock to go over $200 again by the end of the year.
😀
Don’t listen to anyone who says to buy APPL. Not sure what stock that is. Instead, buy AAPL.
Good Lord! You’d think all these financial-know-nothings owned Apple stock and had been part of driving up the price far beyond the value…
Oh… yeah.
Has the guy been to an Apple store lately? I just went to one yesterday and bought an Apple TV, and in the 10 minutes I spent in the store, I saw an iMac, Macbook, iPhone, and my Apple TV get purchased. And that was only covering 20% of the store at 1:30 pm on a Monday, in Mannhattan Village, CA. It looked like the New York Stock Exchange in there. Crazy.
TowerTone, if your girlfriend comes home with a bottle of Viagra, she might be trying to tell you something.
Is Proud American actually ZuneTang® trying to be political? McCain is so old, when he first ran for the Senate he was called a liar by Mark Twain.
ZuneTang is retarded you are wasting your time reading his comments
@Proud American “….The sad thing is they will ruin this country and the economy with their out of control liberalism.”
Take note:
1) American Military Casualties in Iraq since GWB declared “Mission Accomplished” (5/1/03) = 3884
2) Can you spell recession?
I knew you could!
“I just spent 45 minutes troubleshooting a top of the range laptop running Vista.”
Electric or natural gas?
Sounds like someone missed the boat on buying in at $120 and wants to try and manipulate the market to get a cheaper buy-in.
“yep, that’s straight from the Democrats’ playbook. “
Sorry Tom, but the Republicans VERY CLEARLY did the same thing in 2000. Go back and look at the tape. They ALL do it. Don’t just pin it one one side.
We’re probably better off listening to Morgan Freeman’s predictions.
< slow baritone voice >
“I . . .wish . . .that I could tell you that the Sisters left Tavis McCourt alone.
I . . . wish . . I could tell you that.
But there’s . . .one . . .thing . . . I do know.
You either get busy selling or you get busy buying.
Shares of AAPL, that is.”
@ Proud American.
Take your post and remove the word ‘liberal’ and replace with ‘conservative’ and it still makes just as much sense.
And if you think the media is liberal, why don’t you ask yourself who actually OWNS the media and who those particular people are generally aligned with. Here’s a phrase to help you on your search: giant media conglomerate
Buster,
1) Total U.S. casualties in Vietnam War, started by Democrat LBJ in 8/7/1964) = 58,151
2) Now you have some perspective, too.