Apple shares are off to their worst-ever start to begin a 12 months as investors fret over a series of issues plaguing the tech giant – including signs of weak iPhone demand and mounting federal antitrust scrutiny.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s valuation plummeted by $177 billion in market value through last Friday for the reason that start of 2024, Bloomberg reported.
The stock fell greater than 6% through the shortened opening week — leading to the most important decline in an organization’s market cap on record over the identical period — and put Apple liable to losing its title as the world’s most beneficial company.
Shares were hit after a report surfaced that the Justice Department was in the “late stages” of filing an enormous antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
The feds are investigating whether Apple has stifled competition and leveraged its hardware and software products to maintain the iPhone’s dominance over the market.
A DOJ antitrust lawsuit “would add to the plethora of problems it faces, from slowing iPhone sales to Watch patent issues,” according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana.
“The suit could attack Apple’s business model of tightly integrating its devices and services,” Rana added.
Apple shares were up around 1% in early trading Monday.
As of this morning, Apple’s market cap hovered at $2.85 trillion, while Microsoft trailed just behind at $2.75 trillion.
The DOJ’s probe into Apple’s business practices surfaced in the identical week that a pair of firms downgraded their rankings for the corporate’s stock due to concerns about iPhone sales.
Piper Sandler & Co. analyst Harsh Kumar warned clients that “growth rates have peaked for unit sales” for the iPhone.
The firm also cited the continued dispute that led officials to implement a sales ban on the newest Apple Watch model due to alleged patent infringement – a move that a US appeals court has since paused.
Elsewhere, Barclays downgraded Apple’s stock to “underweight” from “neutral” and lowered their price goal for the corporate’s shares to $160, down from a previous goal of $161, due in large part to signs of weak demand for the iPhone in China and developed markets.
Wall Street will likely be watching closely as Apple prepares to release its $3,499 “Vision Pro” virtual reality headset – its first major product release in years.
On Monday, Apple said the Vision Pro will likely be available for preorder starting on Jan. 19 and would hit stores on Feb. 2.