One analyst sees weak near-term prospects The Apple company. AAPLreflected in the share price.
What happened: KeyBanc Analyst Brandon Nispel maintains a “sector weight” rating on Apple.
KeyBanc’s “First Look Data” shows a 6% month-over-month increase in indexed spending on Apple hardware in February, beating the typical 14% decline. The analyst attributes this improvement to the February launch of the Pro Vision and a weaker February than the previous year.
Year-to-date hardware spending is down 20% from last year, but that’s an improvement from the 8% decline in the first quarter, according to the analyst.
Historically, Apple’s second-quarter hardware sales have declined 24% sequentially over the past three years. This is lower than analysts’ estimates of a 30.5% decline and KeyBanc’s estimate of 31.3%.
See also: Everything you need to know about Apple stock
Drag factors: KeyBanc maintains lower hardware revenue forecast due to weak upgrade rates and Chinese competition. App Store regulations add uncertainty, and analyst expects limited stock price movement.
“Regulation of the App Store is likely overkill and belief in an inflection of growth is low,” Nispel said.
A separate note from KeyBanc suggests that iPhone 15 sales are meeting expectations, with good demand for the Pro models and stable sales for the base models. However, supply remains limited. KFLD data, however, points to weakening iPhone demand overall, with February sales down 8% month-over-month and 12% year-over-year.
Price Action: Apple closed Friday’s session down 0.22% at $172.62, according to Benzinga Pro data. The stock has fallen 10.7% this year, while the S&P 500 has posted a gain of 7.3 %.
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