Apple declines for second day
Shares of Apple Inc. declined for a second consecutive day Wednesday after the gadget and computer maker made a number of new product announcements, several of which were anticipated.
Apple shares fell $9.40, or 5.6 percent, to close at $159.64. On Tuesday, the stock declined 5.5 percent to finish trading at $169.04.
In the past year, Apple shares have traded between $82.86 and $202.96, passing the $200 mark for the first time in December.
The stock declined Tuesday as company chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled new and updated products and services at the annual Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. New arrivals included movie rentals through the company's online iTunes Store and a new ultra-slim laptop called the MacBook Air.
The movie rental service was widely expected, and the laptop had been speculated about as well.
In a client note Wednesday, Banc of America Securities analyst Craig D. Scott called Macworld "mostly uneventful." The analyst rates Apple shares "Buy" with a $200 price target.
JP Morgan analyst Bill Shope felt similarly, saying in a Tuesday client note that the event was "relatively lackluster" and pointing out that iPhone sales to date came in below his expectations.
Jobs said Tuesday that Apple sold 4 million iPhones in the first 200 days since its release; Shope expected 4.4 million through the December quarter.
"Our expectations, however, were somewhat higher than consensus," he noted.
Shope, who rates the stock "Neutral," increased his fiscal 2008 earnings-per-share estimate slightly to $4.89 from $4.85 but lowered his revenue expectations a bit to $31.02 billion from $31.04 billion.
Goldman Sachs analyst David C. Bailey, who rates Apple shares "Buy" with a $220 price target, said in a late Tuesday client note that the share decline makes for a good time to buy the stock.
Now, focus will shift to Apple's upcoming earnings report, he said, in which he expects upside to his forecast given strong demand for computers, better-than-expected demand for iPhones and solid sales of the company's Leopard operating system.
Apple is expected to issue its fourth-quarter report on Tuesday.
The stock may bounce back a bit after the report, Citi Investment Research analyst Richard Gardner said in a client note, but he said in the first half of 2008 Apple's shares "should be volatile due to iPod seasonality and consumer spending concerns."