Technology

IIE Digital Desk:  Amid rising worries about iPhone sales, Apple Inc., already the least favored among major tech stocks on Wall Street, has seen a second downgrade this week, solidifying analysts' prudent stance.

According to Bloomberg report, Harsh Kumar of Piper Sandler & Co. lowered his rating on Apple on Thursday, pointing to a weakened macro environment in China that is expected to dampen iPhone demand. This downgrade follows a more bearish move by Barclays Plc earlier in the week, where analysts led by Tim Long shifted their rating to underweight.

“We are concerned about handset inventories," Kumar said in a note, lowering his recommendation for Apple to neutral from overweight after holding a bullish view since March 2020. “Growth rates have peaked for unit sales," Kumar was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.As of the start of 2024, Apple had the fewest bullish recommendations among prominent tech stocks, according to Bloomberg data. Piper Sandler's downgrade has further reduced the company's buy-equivalent ratio, resulting in the lowest percentage of optimistic analysts in three years.

Apple, the only major tech firm to have experienced revenue contraction over the past four quarters, is predicted to achieve only 3.6% revenue growth and 7.9% profit expansion in fiscal 2024, based on analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

After a nearly 50% rally the previous year, Apple's stock has stumbled in the early sessions of 2024, dropping 4.3% and wiping out nearly $130 billion in market value, according to Bloomberg data. The shares are now edging toward oversold territory and seem poised for a fourth consecutive session of losses.

Despite the near-unanimous bullish sentiment toward big tech on Wall Street, Apple remains an outlier, with only 33 buy-equivalent recommendations. This contrasts with Amazon.com Inc.'s 68, Meta Platforms Inc.'s 66, and the 59 bullish ratings for Nvidia Corp.