Analysts Downgrade AAPL Shares

According to Yahoo Finance, Barclays analysts downgraded AAPL shares to “underweight” and lowered their price forecast: they expect the share price to drop to USD 160 (although AAPL traded above USD 184 yesterday).

Analysts justified their decision by their expectations of a decrease in demand for new iPhone models. “Our checks remain negative on volumes and mix for iPhone 15, and we see no features or upgrades that are likely to make the iPhone 16 more compelling.”

The news caused AAPL's share price to fall 3.6% on Tuesday, its biggest one-day percentage drop since September, and the decline wiped out more than USD 107 billion in market value. Concerns are growing due to:

→ growing competition from companies such as Huawei Technologies Co;

→ strict measures by the Chinese government against foreign-made devices.

The graph shows that:

→ The price forms a downward channel, shown in red. We outlined the lower contour of this channel in the analysis of the AAPL share price on November 3. At the same time, we wrote about the emerging decline in sales of Apple products.

→ The price has formed an AB double top pattern. Moreover, the second peak is higher than the first, which forms a false bullish breakout - a threatening sign.

→ Comparing the performance of AAPL stock with the performance of the stock market index, we can see that the stock is actually underperforming the market in the second half of 2023.

Thus, there is reason to assume that if the price continues to develop within the contours indicated by the downward red channel, it will drop to the values ​​predicted by Barclays analysts.