Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) are trading slightly down on Monday after the tech behemoth received a rare downgrade from a Loop Capital Markets analyst.
Apple stock now lacks a meaningful upside
Ananda Baruah lowered his rating on the iPhone maker today to “hold”. His price target remained unchanged at $180 but that no longer represents a meaningful upside from here.
The analyst turned dovish on Apple stock primarily because he doubts the company will be able to deliver on its revenue guidance for the current quarter.
Loop Capital supply chain analyst John Donovan sees AAPL having reduced its June Q builds and shipments by 10%. This is incremental to reduced June Q guidance AAPL provided on 5/4.
It is also noteworthy that shares of the multinational are already up nearly 40% versus the start of the year.
Why else did he downgrade the Apple stock?
Earlier this month, the Nasdaq-listed firm reported a near 3.0% decline in revenue for its Q2 and said a similar decline was likely in the June quarter as well (find out more).
Baruah downgraded the Apple stock this morning also because he’s not entirely convinced that the said weakness will be restricted to the current quarter only. His research note reads:
While we believe AAPL’s Sep Q & Dec Q shipment outlook remains intact, we also believe the risk has increased it could eventually be lowered.
His outlook on the Cupertino-headquartered firm, though, is in contrast with Jim Cramer who recently said the stock could easily hit $200 (link).
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