Yesterday, Apple (AAPL) coasted through a late day crash before closing at $80.85. The lowest numbers the company has seen since 2006, pre-iPhone.
The major concern for most people here is that the stock so easily sailed down to $80 per share. After hovering around the mid-eighties for a while, and a few nice rallies thrown in with some general market confidence, it seemed that $80 per share wasn’t going to happen. The problem is that every time Apple’s stock levels off, it crashes based on market instability and drops further than before. Apple is not the only big tech company this is happening to, so it’s not an isolated situation.
“Apple’s fundamentals are strong, right? Yes they are. But that has absolutely no bearing here. Apple is simply falling with the rest of the market, and so long as there’s no confidence in the market, it will continue to fall. I suppose you could argue that Apple has taken more than it’s fair share, but trying to argue that point with the market is an argument you can’t win. You can only accept it for what it is,” Zach Bass writes for Seeking Alpha.
Brass is right for the most part. Apple is not falling because the company is doing anything wrong, or making the wrong moves. The bottom line is that Apple is not immune to outside market conditions. He continues, “…if you recall, not more than a couple months back, we had respected Apple analyst Gene Munster reiterate his price target for Apple of $250! So what’s crazier now, a 300% gain to hit Munster’s target, or a 25% decline to reach 60?” — For the sake of the market and Apple shareholders, let’s hope the stock rebounds back from $80, and confidence in Apple’s long-term revenue starts reflecting Apple’s market position on Wall Street.
Apple hitting $60 per share is unlikely based on the market’s current trends, however if it does, brace yourself. Apple has been setting trends on Wall Street and it’s performance has been a relative indicator of the market’s general fluctuation. If Apple (AAPL) hits $60, there will be much bigger factors weighing in.
Shares of Apple Inc are currently trading at $82.58, up 2.09 (2.60%) on the day.
6 Comments to “Will Apple (AAPL) Hit $60? Brace Yourself If It Does”
It’ll be a cold day in hell before Apple hits $60/share.
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What makes you so confident? The market is in shambles and Apple just slid to $80 right before our very eyes!
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Well… 1) APPLE HAS 25 BILLION IN CASH PEOPLE!!! 2) Who’s to say what acquisitions they’ll be making in ‘09? You don’t know, I don’t know, nobody knows (except Apple). 3) Why in the world would Apple shed another $20 of their price per share right now? Everybody and their mother’s knows that it’s cheap, and if anything we’ll see a rally on Monday. 4) It’s not going to tumble even lower right before the holidays.
If I am wrong and Apple does hit $60, I will proudly check back here and admit that I was wrong, (Right after I buy 10,000 shares).
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I really hope you’re right Smith. What I would do right now for late September prices (low-$100’s) — that would be so nice right now and regain so much confidence.
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@Smith: “APPLE HAS 25 BILLION IN CASH PEOPLE!!!” — to keep with your choice of caps… THEY HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING WITH IT!!!
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If you analyze all of Apple Core Businesses you will see outstanding performance in each one. Ipods sales, although leveling off, are still doing well. All the Mac are selling 3x market growth rate. And iphone has sold 13,000,000 units and is projected to sell 42,000,000 next year. Why does Apple products do so well? Superior hardware/software integration which deliver a vastly superior customer experience for a very small premium in price. Other companies can only compete on price while Apple delivers superior user experience which enhances productivity. I have had my iphone for about 2 months and am really amazed at how simple it is to operate and how many things I can do with it. e-mail, text messaging, phone, accounting, recorder for notes, NYTimes, weather radar, flight simulator (fun), car racing game, etc. The app store is really opening up the universe of possibilities. This is the third platform and is the powerful hand held computer that everyone is dreaming about. The market will reward performance in the long run…stay tuned…Apple is the future of computing.
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