Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was supposed to be the best stock in the world. It was always at the top of the list for stocks to buy and almost nobody would say to sell Apple stock. Its share price was supposed to go to the moon as analyst after analyst on Wall Street kept raising their price targets to $600, then $800, then even $1,000. After briefly hitting $700 in 2012, the Apple stock price has now broken under the $400 barrier briefly on Wednesday for the first time since late in 2011.
Apple’s weakness is along with a weak stock market today, but the weakness from Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) added to some concerns today. We would also note that Bernstein just said earlier this week that Apple may not actually announce its cash plans along with earnings. The report also showed that Apple may take on debt to avoid paying the taxes for the cash that is held outside of the United States.
We would note that estimates and expectations have been coming down steadily since the start of this year. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $613.53 for Apple. Thomson Reuters has a consensus estimate of $10.13 in earnings per share as of last look, but this has dropped. a week ago the estimate was a penny higher at $10.14 EPS. Then it was $10.18 30 days ago, $10.24 just 60 days ago, and $11.86 back 90 days ago. We would like to ask: Does a new $99.99 iPhone cheapen the brand of Apple?
Apple shares are down 5.2% at $403.80 and the stock hit a new 52-week low of $398.11. The 52-week high is $705.07, but Apple’s market cap is now back down to about $378 billion.
See the chart below from Stockcharts.com:
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