Another analyst Monday joined the growing chorus voicing caution about how the economic downturn may finally be catching up with Apple.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Mie Abramsky downgraded Apple shares to “sector perform,” shaken by last week’s numbers indicating consumers were holding off purchasing Mac laptop and desktop computers.
Abramsky also trimmed his target price for Apple shares to $140 from $200 and cut his fourth quarter expectations. The analyst said Monday Apple is likely to report earning $32.8 billion, slightly off of $33 billion previously projected. The RBC analyst also lowered his prediction for 2009 to $40 billion from $42.5 billion once expected.
Abramsky pointing to last week’s ChangeWave Research report which showed fewer consumers plan to purchase a Mac over the next 90 days.
Prospective Apple laptop sales slipped to 29 percent from 34 percent in August. Intentions to purchase Mac desktops fell to 26 percent from 30 percent last month, according to ChangeWave.
Apple could turn things around by Tuesday announcing a low-cost iPhone or iPod, the analyst believes.
Last week, BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman trimmed his Apple stock price target to $180 from $190 per share and cut fourth-quarter revenue projections to $7.88 billion from $8.03 billion.
ThinkEquity also lowered its Apple stock target to $170 from $200 per share and cut to $7.8 billion its fourth-quarter revenue prediction from $7.9 billion.
Apple is expected to release its fiscal fourth quarter report Tuesday.
Photo: Cishore/Flickr
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
