Direct link: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/behind-apple-100-billion-mark...

TLDR:

"After surging roughly 50% to a record high in 2023, a rare rating downgrade from Wall Street helped push Apple stock down 3.65% on Tuesday, shaving over $100 billion from the tech giant’s market cap.

Barclays analyst Tim Long tagged Apple with an “underweight” rating due to weak iPhone demand Tuesday morning, arguing its shares could sink roughly 13% to $160 over the next 12 months.

It’s rare to see any analyst hit America’s highest-valued company with a negative rating. Apple is rated at hold or better by 40 out of 44 Wall Street forecasters, according to data provided to the Wall Street Journal by FactSet. But Long said that iPhone 15 sales have been “lackluster”—particularly in China, which has reportedly banned government officials from using Apple’s flagship product due to security concerns. He also expects sales of the iPhone 16, which is set to be released in September, to be weaker than expected. “We see no features or upgrades that are likely to make the iPhone 16 more compelling,” he wrote.

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There have also been warning signs about waning iPhone demand for some time—and that’s critical given that iPhone sales made up nearly 50% of Apple’s total revenue in the third quarter of 2023.

UBS analyst David Vogt, who holds a neutral rating and $190 price target for Apple, warned in a Monday note that iPhone 15 sales have been “soft” in many key regions lately, including China and India.

Vogt explained that U.S. iPhone sales to end customers (called sell-through) fell almost 13% from a year ago in November, while China sales were down 6% over the same period. This led Apple to lose 50 basis points of global smartphone market share year over year in November, and 320 basis points of smartphone market share in China over the same period. “New competition is a challenge,” Vogt said of the data."