“Investment bank Goldman Sachs cut its price target on Apple Thursday to reflect lower growth expectations for the smartphone industry,” Spriha Srivastava reports for CNBC. “This follows a recent reduction of the bank’s global smartphone unit growth forecast for 2016 to 5 percent from 6 percent, and to 4 percent from 7 percent for next year.”
“The bank has trimmed its price target to $124 from $136, maintaining a ‘buy’ rating,” Srivastava reports. “Goldman also trimmed predicted iPhone unit sales to 211 million from 212 million for the whole of 2016.”
“The bank further said that the reductions were driven by lower market growth, as well as lower average selling prices on a greater shift from developed to emerging markets. It expects this to drive more sales for the new lower-priced iPhone SE, relative to the higher-priced iPhone 7,” Srivastava reports. “On a brighter note for Apple, Goldman said the consensus on full year 2017 sales is too low as pent up demand will likely coincide with iPhone 7 upgrades… ‘We continue to view consensus estimates for (full year 2017) as too low, as we expect an increase in upgrades with the iPhone 7 based on the pent-up demand evident in our recent U.S. consumer survey, combined with our estimate of 26 percent year-on-year growth in the iPhone installed base as of September 2016.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This too shall pass.
OMG – Apple is only predicted to sell 211 million premium iPhones this year.
If that’s what happens when the sky falls, then it doesn’t seem all that much to worry about after all.
Yet again, Apple shares are experiencing relentless liquidation. Just as some strength was finally showing up now the rug gets pulled out and again Apple’s stock is falling.
I am sick and tired of how poorly Apple stock performs.
Totally agree Birdseed – I’ve been saying this for the last 24 months – unlike MSFT, GOOG, and others that get a reasonable PE – Apple seems to be the favourite to manipulate and short, the buyback and dividend really seems to be working (sarcasm) – great idea Apple !!
As ever, keep in mind that stock prices are the effect of human perception in the realms of both reality and fantasy. Right now, AAPL’s price is significantly driven by fantasy in the form of FUD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
While the phrase dates to at least the early 20th century, the present common usage of disinformation related to software, hardware and technology industries generally appeared in the 1970s to describe disinformation in the computer hardware industry, and has since been used more broadly.
Let the predictable “actionable research” nonsense appear from those “believable” Financial engineering companies; all they are interested in is that you, the retail idiot investor, sell/buy AAPL, they could not care which, as long as they get their transaction fees and cause churn. Whatever you do, please don’t sit long in AAPL because nobody but you will make money over the long term!
Want to know who one of th biggest investors in AAPL is; you guessed it, Goldman Sachs:
Top Institutional Holders
Holder Shares % Out Value* Reported
Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) 329,987,175 6.02 35,965,301,543 Mar 31, 2016
State Street Corporation 215,644,530 3.94 23,503,096,893 Mar 31, 2016
BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. 146,608,950 2.68 15,978,909,167 Mar 31, 2016
FMR, LLC 145,170,087 2.65 15,822,087,491 Mar 31, 2016
BlackRock Fund Advisors 70,489,746 1.29 7,682,677,275 Mar 31, 2016
Northern Trust Corporation 70,299,865 1.28 7,661,982,145 Mar 31, 2016
Bank of New York Mellon Corporation 68,595,866 1.25 7,476,263,298 Mar 31, 2016
Invesco Ltd. 56,587,317 1.03 6,167,451,566 Mar 31, 2016
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 55,306,093 1.01 6,027,810,965 Mar 31, 2016
JP Morgan Chase & Company 54,597,844 1.00 5,950,618,908 Mar 31, 2016
I’d enjoy Goldman Sachs trimmed down to the roots if not pulled out of the ground entirely. What a sleaze hole of corporatocracy and parasitism. 😛
In related news, on April 11 Goldman Sachs, continuing a parade of Federal charges against banks, settled a lawsuit for $5.06 Billion for its faulty and deceptive mortgage practices leading to the 2008 financial crisis. Further, the Fed and the FDIC dinged GS for its piss-poor bankruptcy protection plan, something mandated for all financial institutions by anti-bailout legislation passed in the wake of the Recession.
Apart from that, Goldman Sachs’ survey teams and current stable of investment advisors are as pure as the driven snow.