A Wall Street analyst on Monday downgraded Apple stock amid signs of slowing demand for iPhone handsets, which threatens Apple's June-quarter performance. AAPL stock dipped on the news.
Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah lowered his rating on Apple stock to hold from buy but kept his price target at 180.
On the stock market today, Apple stock slid 0.6% to close at 174.20.
"We've now seen Apple reduce its builds (and we believe shipment forecasts) for essentially the second time in the last 4 weeks," Baruah said in a note to clients. The news presents downside risk to Apple's guidance and Wall Street estimates for the June quarter, he added.
Baruah also downgraded Apple chip supplier Cirrus Logic to hold from buy. Plus, he cut his price target on CRUS stock to 80 from 92. On Monday, CRUS stock fell 1.4% to 77.04.
Apple Stock Is On This IBD Stock List
Loop Capital supply chain analyst John Donovan believes Apple reduced its June-quarter iPhone builds and shipments by about 10% in the last six weeks to 34.2 million units.
However, Apple appears to have raised its iPhone production for the September quarter ahead of the iPhone 15 launch, Donovan said in a note to clients. He estimates Apple plans to build 55 million iPhones next quarter.
But Apple's iPhone 15 production plans now call for 87 million units in 2023, down from 98 million initially, Donovan said.
Apple stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
