“Zabitsky, who founded his research firm Active Communications Integration in 1997 to consult the telecom industry and institutional investors, believes one of the most-favored stocks on Wall Street will decline nearly 50 percent because of competition from phones using Google’s Android software and because of a double dip in the American economy that will hit luxury brands as a consumer and government debt bubble bursts,” Melloy reports. “‘Apple is a luxury brand and in the past has correlated very well with LVMH Moet Hennessy and Christian Dior,’ said Zabitsky, who is based in Toronto, in an interview today. ‘America didn’t get rid of the bad debt, the government just took it over and consumer credit is trending down.’”
Melloy reports, “To put his $126 target in perspective, the average forecast from Wall Street analysts is $300.”
For what it’s worth, Zabitsky declined to reveal his models that get him to the $126 figure, but said it was based on much lower iPhone prices hitting margins. The increasing capabilities of phones made by HTC and the end of the AT&T exclusivity contract will be the catalyst for that plummeting profitability. When the iPhone came out it was grossly different,’ added the analyst. ‘Apple has raised the bar on what’s normal, but other phones are easily narrowing the difference because web technology is easier to program.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, happy day! Our search for the new Laura has finally ended! Eddie, you’ve been iCal’ed with a bullet!
In the full article, Pete Najarian, co-founder of OptionsMonster.com and TradeMonster.com, said it best, “If he is right and economic circumstances cause Apple to drop to $126, we’ve got much bigger problems to worry about than that.”
