Apple’s share price nosedived by well over 2% yesterday after it was downgraded to “sell” by Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang. There are reportedly now three analysts that rate the company’s stocks as “sell.” There are also 18 with a “hold” rating which, in Wall Street lingo, is actually no different from sell. There are also still 23 stalwarts who have a “buy” rating on the stock.
At this moment, the bulls still seem to be in control. So far this year, Apple’s stock price has risen 25%. However, for the rest of 2019, Zhang has dark predictions.
In a report issued yesterday, he predicted that iPhone sales will continue to disappoint and that iPad sales will start falling in the second part of the year. He added that sales of the AirPod, HomePod and iWatch might not be enough to compensate.
Zhang also predicted that the iPhone XS could end up being “one of the worst selling iPhone models in the history of Apple.”
Despite strong growth in Apple News and Apple Music, he expects Apple’s growth to slow from here onwards. Interestingly enough, he didn’t mention the Chinese market specifically.
Not all analysts agree. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives remains positive about international iPhone demand and added that, because of recent price reductions in China, there appears to be a small production increase from Apple suppliers. According to his calculations, there should be between 60 million and 70 million iPhone owners who might upgrade to a newer device over the next year to 18 months.
Even Zhang agreed that the Cupertino-based company’s latest earnings guidance remained “stable.” It has lots of cash reserves, and it has a significant stock buyback program in place to reduce the number of shares, and therefore boost earnings per share.