On Tuesday, the first trading day after President Trump took office, U.S. stocks generally rose, but Apple fell against the market, with an intraday decline of 4.6%. Apple was downgraded by two Wall Street analysts and a price target cut by one. In addition, data showed that Apple iPhone sales in China fell 18.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter.
Here are the latest negative statements from Wall Street institutions on Apple:
- Jefferies downgraded Apple to underperform, making it the rare Wall Street institution to give Apple a sell-equivalent rating, with just 8.5% of analysts assigning a bearish rating and about 63% assigning a buy-equivalent. Jefferies also lowered its price target on Apple to $200.75 from $211.84.
- Loop Capital downgraded Apple to Hold after a Buy rating with a $230 price target.
- While maintaining an Overweight rating on Apple, JPMorgan analysts lowered their price target to $260 from $265, citing caution about the company's outlook.
Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee noted:
In the world's largest mobile phone market,The iPhone sales are underperforming and are not driven by the AI hype,The company's revenue for the first quarter of 2025 is unlikely to meet expectations and may not meet expectations for a 5% growth in operating income for the first quarter of 2025. Apple's guidance for the March quarter could also be disappointing.
Lee also lowered his iPhone 17/18 expectations due to the slowdown in the adoption and commercialization of AI, adding that Apple's AI outlook appears to be subdued.
Analysts also pointed to weaker-than-expected sales of the iPhone and overall consumer electronics.
Among the concerns among JPMorgan analysts:
The dollar strengthened while the market saw limited demand for Apple products.
Given the current AI capabilities, sales of Apple products are on a flat track.
China demand is weak.They expect Apple to continue to lose market share in China as the company passes the peak of its product cycle,Moreover, Apple's high-end mobile phone models can't enjoy local government subsidies for low-end mobile phones.
Smartphone sales in China fell 3.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2024, making it the only quarter in 2024 to see a year-on-year decline, according to the latest data from Counterpoint. In the fourth quarter, Huawei topped the market share list, followed by Xiaomi and Apple. Apple ranked third in the fourth quarter of 2024 with a market share of 17.1% in the face of fierce competition brought by the expansion of Huawei and other Chinese handset brand manufacturers in the premium market.Apple's iPhone sales in China fell 18.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter.
Separately, according to data released by market research firm Canalys, India's smartphone market shipments fell by 4% to 37.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2024. Among them, vivo maintained the lead with 7.5 million units shipped and 20% market share, followed by Xiaomi and Samsung with 5.7 million units and 5.4 million units, respectively. OPPO (excluding OnePlus) and Apple rounded out the top five with 4.2 million and 4 million units, respectively, with Apple making the top five for the first time, driven by aggressive promotions and festive demand.
On January 20th, the mobile phone national supplement was officially launched.At present, most of the main models of Apple's mobile phones can enjoy state subsidies, including iPhone15 and iPhone16.Some consumers ordered an iPhone16 with 256G memory through the state supplement, and the price was 5,499 yuan. Compared with the U.S. market,After the national supplement, the iPhone16 is the lowest price in the world, and it has become the most "fragrant" model of Apple.In addition, some netizens found that the 128G version of iPhone13 only cost 2,999 yuan after the national supplement, which dropped to a historically low price. According to the calculation, driven by the national subsidy policy, the domestic sales of mobile phones this year is expected to reach 300 million units.
According to the analysis, Apple's rating downgrade further indicates that weak iPhone sales are increasingly causing investors' worries, and the outside world believes that artificial intelligence (AI) has failed to play the expected growth catalyst role.
Earlier this month, Ming-Chi Kuo of Tianfeng International, the analyst who knows Apple best, said that Apple will face more severe challenges this year, including the almost stagnant growth of iPhone, the lack of contribution of AI services, and the continuous shrinking business in China. Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the market is overly optimistic and the stock price is at risk of falling. When Ming-Chi Kuo said that he was bearish on Apple, Apple's share price was at the $236 line.
As of Tuesday's close, Apple fell 3.2% to close at $222.64. Since 2025, Apple's share price has fallen 11%.On Tuesday, Apple's market value was surpassed by Nvidia, losing the throne of the world's largest company by market value.
There was no good news from the "Capitol Hill Stock God" either. Pelosi recently made a big deal in trading the stocks of U.S. technology giants, buying Google and Amazon call options,However, selling Apple and Nvidia。 Sold 31,600 shares of Apple's common stock on the last trading day of 2024 for between $5 million and $25 million, making it her biggest transaction in the past month.
In addition, Wall Street learned from the supply chain that the battery of Apple's folding machine will be made of all steel shell, and the number is two. Apple's folding screen phone will be launched in the third quarter of 2026. At present, the supply chains in mainland China and Taiwan Province have begun to make preliminary preparations.
Apple will report its earnings next Thursday, January 30, after U.S. stocks bell.
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