Apple Inc. (AAPL) Receives Four Big Downgrades: JPM, CS, BofA, UBS
September 11, 2013
By Michelle Jones
valuewalk.com
Many analysts are not happy with the actual iPhones unveiled by Apple Inc. (AAPL) on Tuesday. They’re concerned that the iPhone 5C isn’t priced low enough to be able to adequately address emerging markets. Analysts who remain positive on Apple, however, say the company’s aggressive launch plan and likely margin stabilization will boost the company’s earnings.
Apple Inc. ( NASDAQ:AAPL) shares fell as much as 4 percent in premarket trading after the company received downgrades from four major financial firms. JPMorgan Chase & Co. ( NYSE:JPM), Credit Suisse Group AG ( NYSE:CS) (VTX:CSGN), Bank of America Corp ( NYSE:BAC) and UBS AG ( NYSE:UBS) (VTX:UBSN) all downgraded Apple after the company’s big media event on Tuesday.
Apple knocked down two notches by Credit SuisseInterestingly enough, Credit Suisse analysts actually downgraded Apple Inc. ( NASDAQ:AAPL) fromOutperform to Neutral. Analyst Kulbinder Garcha has a price target of $525 a share on the stock. They’re concerned about the two new iPhones and say that both the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C appear to be premium devices, which limits Apple’s addressable market and may limit the company’s growth.
Garcha also noted that the specs of both handsets are “not quite on par” with those of other high-end handsets. The analyst believes that Apple’s smartphone market share will fall to 15.5 percent this year and 13.1 percent next year, compared to last year’s market share of 18.1 percent.
Bank of America analysts downgraded Apple Inc. ( NASDAQ:AAPL) to Neutral from Buy after Tuesday’s media event. JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz noted in his downgrade note that the iPhone 5C does appear to be a device that’s priced slightly below the flagship model, but he doesn’t think it goes far down enough. The handset will sell for $730 in China, one of the markets the handset was supposedly going to be targeting.
Other analyst reactions on AppleEven analysts at Bernstein Research, who kept their Outperform rating on Apple, were concerned after the company unveiled its two new iPhones on Tuesday. They expressed worries that the company would continue losing market share because the iPhone 5C doesn’t really address emerging markets as well as they would like.
A few analysts actually became a little more positive on Apple after the announcement. Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey increased his price target for the stock from $420 a share to $480 a share, saying that the company’s iPhone 5C pricing may have ensured that margins would remain stable over the next few quarters.
Canaccord Genuity analysts kept their Buy rating and increased their price target as well, from $530 to $550 a share, saying Apple Inc. ( NASDAQ:AAPL)’s aggressive launch plans should help to boost the company’s sales. The firm increased its 2014 iPhone estimates to 180 mill handsets from 177 million. |
