AAPL
shares were down nearly 4 percent before the market opened, a hit that came
after both The Wall Street Journal and Nikkei issued reports claiming that Apple had slashed iPhone 5 component orders due
to weak demand. The company is said to have cut "roughly half" of its
orders for the 4-inch display on its latest smartphone, and also initiated a
drawdown on other components in the current quarter, which concludes in March.
The
news comes just over a week before Apple is set to announce earnings for its
recently concluded December quarter. Apple's sales during the holiday season
are expected to be record setting, particularly for the iPhone, which some
believe may have reached sales of 50 million.
Uncertainty
about Apple's future growth has made next Wednesday's earnings report
conference call that much more important for the company. Last week, before
rumors about iPhone 5 orders surfaced, one prominent analyst had already declared that the Jan. 23 call would be Apple's
most important in a decade.
Even
before reports claimed iPhone 5 component orders were halved, Apple stock had
tumbled nearly 17 percent over the last three months. It's been said that investors
are concerned about Apple's gross margins in 2013, in addition to the company's
growth potential.
The
last time Apple stock went below $500 was last February. The company's high
came in mid-September, when it was briefly priced at more than $700 per share.
Riding
the hype of the iPhone 5 launch, some analysts predicted that AAPL stock was headed for $1,000 per share, and Brian White of Topeka Capital
Markets has maintained his price target of $1,111. But in premarket
trading on Monday, Apple had become worth less than half of those targets. [AppleInsider]
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