What happened
A victim of the Great Tech Stock Exodus of 2022, Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL) suffered another decline on Tuesday. The company's shares lost nearly 3% of their value, a worse showing than the 2% decline of the S&P 500 index. Investors were disheartened by one analyst's price target cut, and another's speculation about manufacturing difficulties.
So what
Of the two analyses, it was the one from TF International Securities that was the more concerning. That company's Ming-Chi Kuo wrote in a tweet that the results of a survey he conducted indicate that Apple's "own iPhone 5G modem chip development may have failed."
The company had been developing its own chips to alleviate its dependence on chip leader Qualcomm. Kuo speculated that Apple's struggles mean Qualcomm will remain the sole supplier of 5G chips for the tech giant's upcoming line of new iPhones, presumably making their production more expensive.
It's important to note that Apple has not released any updates recently about its 5G modem chip production.
Now what
Meanwhile, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani is growing more bearish on Apple's prospects for different reasons. Tuesday morning, he cut his price target on the stock to $180 per share from the previous $210.
Daryanani explained in a new research note that "Apple was in growth mode during the 2008/2009 as we were still at the beginning of the smartphone revolution, so revenue declines in a recession today would likely be more severe vs. the growth they managed in 2009."
Despite his concern and the price target reduction, Daryanani is maintaining his outperform (read: buy) recommendation on Apple stock.
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Eric Volkman has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long March 2023 $120 calls on Apple and short March 2023 $130 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
