Apple Inc informed its suppliers that demand for iPhone, its flagship product, has weakened, leading to dropping in its share price and taking off the shine of the recent highs recorded.
After a Bloomberg report about Apple telling its component makers that demand for its iPhone 13 models has slowed down, the stock fell to $157.8 Thursday, down by 4.2%. This was the highest fall since May 4. The suppliers, including STMicroelectronics NV and LG Innate Co stocks, also declined in Europe and Asia.
According to Pierre Ferragu, Research Analyst at New Street, the issue is more structural and not only contributed by customers’ frustration about delays in deliveries. The comments made by Apple to its suppliers are in line with the New Street Perspective on the weak iPhone 13 cycle.
Ferragu, who has one sell rating on Apple shares, is among those that Bloomberg tracked, is expecting a decline in iPhone shipments in 2022 as consumers normalize their spending on New Year. He said that Apple might disappoint in the new year with a warning.
However, Chris Caso, an analyst with Raymond James, is of a different view of the Bloomberg report, saying that it is ambiguous than Apple’s typical supply chain report. Caso has rated the Apple stock as “outperforming” noted that his firm’s supply chain checks have not discovered any significant changes, and it will be surprising if Apple cuts production.
Apple, which is based in Cupertino, California, has declined to comment on the report. Despite the fall, the shares grew 20% in 2021 and ended a record high in November. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush who had touted the Apple shares as a “safety blanket” in the volatile stock market, has hiked the target price to $200 from $185. This was the high-ranking among analysts tracked by Bloomberg before the slow-down report.
The focus of New Street has been the shortage of chip supply for Apple, but in Dan Ives’s opinion, the iPhone 13 demand story domestically and in China was trending ahead of Street expectations.
In a weekly update, Rod Hall of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said that it sees iPhone lead time to shorten globally, and they believe that it signals the demand and supply to come closer to equilibrium.
