AAPL share price dropped 11% since last earnings report

AAPL’s share price dropped by 11% since the company’s last earnings report in August, losing more than $400B in market capitalization. The fall is discussed a couple of days ahead of Apple’s next earnings report, on Thursday.

A new report notes that this is the first time in eight years that the company’s share price has dropped between WWDC and fiscal Q4 earnings report …

The WSJ notes how unusual this is.

The world’s largest company by market value has become worth considerably less over the past three months […] It is hardly a typical swing given the fact that the company has long used the fall season to launch its biggest products for every year, including new iPhones.

There are a number of likely factors behind the anxiety investors feel about the company’s future. One of those is the growing diplomatic row between the US and China, in which Apple has found itself a victim. The company may also be caught up in the conflict between China and Taiwan.

Huawei’s surprise re-emergence as an iPhone competitor also took the world by surprise, hitting Apple’s sales within the country.

To make matters worse, Apple’s old China-based rival Huawei appears to have made a comeback. The company launched a new smartphone called the Mate 60 Pro in September that reportedly is capable of 5G speeds, even though U.S. sanctions were supposed to deny the company the chips necessary for such an accomplishment.

Some investors may also be worried about the Google antitrust case, which could end the search giant’s huge annual payment to Apple for being the default search engine on iPhones and other devices.

That fear is likely misguided. As we noted earlier this month, although the payment makes up a very substantial proportion of Apple’s total profits, it’s likely that the iPhone maker would be able to replace much of it through similar deals with others.

What happens to the share price after this week’s earnings report will depend partly on the quarter’s results – which will reflect launch sales of the iPhone 15 line-up – but also on what the company has to say about its holiday quarter expectations.

That will depend, though, on how much insight Apple shares about how iPhone sales are trending in the company’s fiscal first quarter that ends in December. The recently ended period included only a week of iPhone 15 sales […]

Wall Street is counting on a notable pickup, with iPhone revenue in the December quarter expected to rise 6.4% year over year compared with a 2.7% gain in the September quarter, according to current 

FactSet estimates. “Apple’s Q1 results typically dictate the strength of an iPhone cycle,” analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein wrote in a note to clients last week. 

So far, the market doesn’t seem impressed by the new Macs announced last night.

Photo: Adam Śmigielski/Unsplash