24/7 Wall St.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is still the darling of Wall Street and Main Street. This company has been able to enthrall consumers and the media with its products, and now it is the largest company in the world by market cap and profitability. Apple’s greatness is not being challenged, but investors are starting to wake up to the notion that they just might have to accept some more realistic growth levels for 2016 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. has found it impossible to ignore the drop in Apple’s stock in December. Though down over 1% so far in 2015, it is down over 4% in the past week and down over 9% in the past month. Most investors expect that each December is supposed to come with a Santa stock market rally. Well, it turns out that analysts have been tempering expectations ahead, and it is becoming more evident that many of those massive bullish price targets might need to come down going into 2016.

A lot of things happened in 2015 for Apple. The launch of the Apple Watch was more of a niche product, and the new refreshes for the iPad have yet to materially work into big gains in sales. Still, the iPhone 6 carryover and the iPhone 6s refresh have been huge for Apple. Streaming music has yet to materialize into a massive boost, and the verdict is out for Apple TV.

Shortly before Christmas, Apple shares were trading at roughly $107.00. This is against a 52-week range of $92.00 to $134.54. What really stands out here is that Apple’s consensus analyst price target is all the way up at $148.98 at this time. Sure, we are talking about Apple, but this just still feels too high.

24/7 Wall St.
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