Apple has lost more than $500 billion in market cap since the start of this month, CNBC reported over the weekend.
To put that figure in perspective, it’s slightly more than the market cap it took Apple its first 36 years of existence to climb to. (Apple only passed $500 billion in 2012, the year after Tim Cook took over as CEO.)
Apple hit its all-time high valuation on September 2. This was shortly after Apple shares split 4-to-1. Post-split, Apple shares rose to $137.98 each. At time of writing, ahead of markets opening Monday, AAPL was trading at $106.84. This gives Apple a market cap of $1.82 trillion, no longer above the $2 trillion valuation it crossed in August.
CNBC blames some of the decline on what it claims was a relatively boring Apple event last week. For the first time in years, Apple didn’t announce any iPhones at the event. Instead, they will likely be announced at their own event next month.
Toni Sacconaghi, senior research analyst at Bernstein, referred to Apple’s “Time Flies” event as “relatively underwhelming.” At the event, Apple showed off new iPads, alongside the Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch SE, and Apple One subscription service.
“We believe it could be difficult to move users from competitive music, video or gaming services, where they are often entrenched,” Sacconaghi wrote in a note to clients. “We continue to believe that Apple should look to more creatively bundle its hardware [and] services into integrated subscription bundles.”
Part of the bigger tech sell-off
If people really are dumping their shares because of no new iPhones, one month before there are new iPhones, that seems very unwise. The bigger issue is a broader sell-off of tech stocks. The Nasdaq Composite, which is heavily tech-centric, has fallen more than 10% from its record high. There’s no doubt that Apple’s climb over the past couple of years — more than doubling its size since 2018 — is meteoric. But that’s also because Apple has some incredibly strong fundamentals, even at a time when smartphone sales have peaked.
Do you think Apple has anything to worry about? Did it get too big too fast? Want to guess where shares will be (up or down) come December this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: CNBC
