We can add another award to Apple’s long list, although the company might not be too happy to accept it: The iPhone maker’s stock lost the most value of any tech company this year.
The news comes out of a study from USA Today that reports a shocking average 14 percent decline in value from 462 tech companies. That drop resulted in total losses of $529 billion, but Cupertino is the lead horseman in this year’s stockpocalypse.
“Gadget maker Apple is the biggest destroyed of wealth this year – chewing through $62.3 billion this year as investors brace for the company this year to morph from a growth engine to a shrinking giant,” says USA Today.
That’s almost 12 percent of the total drop, comparable to the gross domestic product of Uzbekistan.
It’s easy to see why Apple led the way, as it seemed generally impossible to please investors no matter how well the company was doing. Despite posting record profits, including the highest gains in history during its most recent earnings reports, Apple stock has suffered hit after hit. It closed today at $94 per share, the latest in its steady progress down from its all-time high of $133 last spring.
But this trend is affecting more than just Apple stock. Professional-networking site LinkedIn dropped almost 44 percent today alone, a loss of $15.3 billion.
USA Today credits investors’ doubts about continuing growth for the across-the-board drops, which creates something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nervous investors buy less, and that pulls values down, which in turn inspires even less confidence in the market. And the future isn’t looking any better; during the Q1 2016 earnings call, Apple head Tim Cook voiced optimism about the company’s future investments in India and China but still tried to manage expectations about its performance in the next quarter.
