Apple stock will not rise due to slowing sales growth in its App Store business, according to Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall on Tuesday cautioned that Apple’s services revenue may disappoint later this year. He reiterated his Neutral rating for the company’s stock.
“App Store growth slowed markedly in May and June” after a spike earlier in the year, he wrote. “Deceleration implies downside risk for FQ4 [September quarter] Services growth.”
Hall cited Sensor Tower data which implied App Store sales in June grew 14% year-over-year versus 18% in May and 21% in April. He said if these weaker trends continue it would mean Apple will report Services growth below his September-quarter estimate.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll wait for Apple’s data over third party data that implies nothing except that Goldman Sachs needs an Apple analyst who can actually analyze Apple, thanks.
Three months of Sensor Tower data is too short a data point to draw any meaningful conclusion, even if their estimates are rock solid perfect. What happened last April-May-June, for just one example question? How about the April-May-June period in 2017, 2016, 2015, etc.? Could this be mere seasonality rather than some apocalyptic “collapse” perhaps ginned up by an “analyst” looking to goose some summer brokerage fees?
Given his limited reasoning capabilities, we doubt that, if pressed, Rod Hall would be able to analyze his way out of a wet paper bag.