Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares fell as much as 4 percent in premarket trading after the company received downgrades from three major financial firms. Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS) (VTX:CSGN), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) and UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) (VTX:UBSN) all downgraded Apple after the company’s big media event on Tuesday.
![Apple Inc. (AAPL) Receives 3 Big Downgrades: CS, BofA, UBS [UPDATED]](https://www.valuewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/clost.png "Apple Inc. (AAPL) Receives 3 Big Downgrades: CS, BofA, UBS [UPDATED]")
Apple knocked down two notches by Credit Suisse
Interestingly enough, Credit Suisse analysts actually downgraded Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) from Outperform to Neutral. Analyst Kulbinder Garcha has a price target of $525 a share on the stock. They’re concerned about the two new iPhones and say that both the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C appear to be premium devices, which limits Apple’s addressable market and may limit the company’s growth.
Garcha also noted that the specs of both handsets are “not quite on par” with those of other high-end handsets. The analyst believes that Apple’s smartphone market share will fall to 15.5 percent this year and 13.1 percent next year, compared to last year’s market share of 18.1 percent.
Bank of America analysts downgraded Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to Neutral from Buy after Tuesday’s media event. JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz remains Overweight on Apple, but he notes that the iPhone 5C does appear to be a device that’s priced slightly below the flagship model, but he doesn’t think it goes far down enough. The handset will sell for $730 in China, one of the markets the handset was supposedly going to be targeting.
Other analyst reactions on Apple
Even analysts at Bernstein Research, who kept their Outperform rating on Apple, were concerned after the company unveiled its two new iPhones on Tuesday. They expressed worries that the company would continue losing market share because the iPhone 5C doesn’t really address emerging markets as well as they would like.
A few analysts actually became a little more positive on Apple after the announcement. Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey increased his price target for the stock from $420 a share to $480 a share, saying that the company’s iPhone 5C pricing may have ensured that margins would remain stable over the next few quarters.
Canaccord Genuity analysts kept their Buy rating and increased their price target as well, from $530 to $550 a share, saying Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s aggressive launch plans should help to boost the company’s sales. The firm increased its 2014 iPhone estimates to 180 mill handsets from 177 million.
(This post has been corrected to state that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) remains Overweight on Apple.)
