Apple stock drop lingers following iPhone parts reports

15 January 2013 07:36 am Views - 1905

Apple's stock went down and stayed down today, following news that the company had slashed orders for iPhone parts.

Shares of Apple stayed down today following a drop that sent the stock down below $500 for the first time since February.

The stock ended the day at $501.75, down $18.55 or 3.57 percent.

The cause for the initial drop came from a pair of stories yesterday -- one from Japan's Nikkei and another later in the day from The Wall Street Journal -- claiming Apple cut its component orders for the iPhone by nearly half last month. The suggestion from both was that demand for Apple's iPhone 5 had declined, causing Apple to slow down on manufacturing orders for more devices.

Some analysts were quick to reassure investors that the reports were simply more "noise" and, in fact, old news.

"We believe this news is not new, as we first discussed potential supply chain component cuts in our report on December 19," JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz said in a note this morning. "We believe the news is more noise, and we believe the stock reaction has been overdone," he added.

Apple reports its fiscal first-quarter 2013 results next week, the first full quarter's worth of iPhone 5 sales, a product that went on sale in September. Analysts, on average, expect the company to have sold just under 50 million iPhones in the three-month span that ended in December. However some of that is expected to be sales of the older models like the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, which Apple continues to sell.

(Source : news.cnet.com)