Apple shares were slammed yesterday seeing the sharpest sell-off the company has experienced in years. Closing in the low $100’s, Apple lost nearly $20 billion in market cap. Today the stock has risen nearly 5% and many analysts still maintain a “buy” rating while defending the Cupertino big tech firm.
Citi has reiterated their Buy rating on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), but cut their price target from $287 to $170. “Citi said while estimate cuts and decelerating growth is not a recipe for outperformance, the valuation after yesterday’s 18% sell-off and the 38% decline for the month of September, makes additional downside limited.” Analysis throughout the community and in most circles around the web, remains focused on an overhauled notebook line from Apple.
David Bailey, an analyst for Goldman Sachs was defending the shares this morning. Additionally, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster explained that Apple is best positioned among its competition to effectively navigate this turbulent economic crisis. “Overall, we believe Street models are too low for Mac in fiscal 2009,” Munster wrote. “This fear of a Mac slowdown is driven by US durable goods data, and the NPD data point from two weeks ago, suggesting Mac growth has slowed from 43 percent year-over-year in July to 23 percent in August.”
While it has been proven that Apple is not immune to economic slowdown, new products placed at highly aggressive price-points, coupled with a successful holiday season will breathe new life into the company and Wall Street. We could even see some upswing around October 14th.
