On Friday (April 17), Goldman Sachs downgraded Apple Inc. stock (AAPL) from “Neutral” to “Sell”.
According to a report by MarketWatch, Goldman cut the price target for AAPL to $233 from $250 since they expect Apple’s earnings to be lower than originally expected.
Per a report in StreetInsider.com, in a note to Goldman Sachs’ clients, analysts led by Rod Hall wrote:
“We are now modeling a deeper reduction in unit demand through mid 2020 and then a shallower recovery into early 2021.
“We also assume some lingering ASP weakness as consumers look to economize similar to what we have seen in prior downturns.
“In addition to this we believe that Services growth slows substantially in 2021 and that Services as a percentage of revenue actually stagnates in that year.
“Our updated model results in an EPS forecast of $11.31 in CY20 and then $13.17 in CY21.”
MarketWatch’s report says that Goldman is “expecting a 36% decline in iPhone unit demand in the second quarter and a 24% decline in the first half of calendar 2020” and falls in demand for Appl’s other products.
Goldman’s analysts were also concerned that “limited global travel may cause the delay of the launch of this year’s updated iPhone.”
In premarket, AAPL is trading at $287.40, up $0.71 (+0.25%); on Thursday (April 16), AAPL closed at $286.69, down $2.26 (-0.79%) on the day; in the year-to-date (YTD) period, AAPL is down 4.33%.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Roberto Júnior via Unsplash. Price chart courtesy of Google Finance.
