Roger Fingas
Taiwanese Apple suppliers experienced a "very good" January, financially, despite Apple "putting on the breaks extra hard" the previous month, Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White said on Tuesday.
A group of nine suppliers handpicked by White — collectively nicknamed the "Apple Monitor" — saw sales remain flat month-to-month, according to Forbes. Typically, the group sees an average decline of 11 percent in January.
Though refusing to name the Monitor companies, White said the group deliberately excludes Foxconn and Pegatron, since their sheer size would skew results. The two firms assemble a number of Apple products.
In December a variety of Apple suppliers reported financial setbacks, including Foxconn, which appeared to validate a report that Apple was cutting back on iPhone 6s/6s Plus orders for the March quarter by as much as 30 percent. Nikkei described the maneuver as an "inventory adjustment" rather than a reflection of weak demand.
Nevertheless, Apple is guiding to its first year-over-year decline in iPhone sales for the current quarter, something CEO Tim Cook has blamed on an unusually successful March 2015 quarter and global economic "malaise."
January's supplier recovery may reinforce views that iPhone sales will resume an upward climb in the June quarter. Apple is still financially dependent on the iPhone, which easily dwarfs Macs and iPads in terms of revenue.
White is holding a "buy" rating on Apple stock with a $200 price target.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
William Gallagher
Amber Neely
7 Comments
So what if there's a temporary down trend, because of a strong dollar and various global financial turmoil?
Apple rules the pack, and still leads in every area. So what if Apple sold a few less iPhones? Apple is still the king and still the one to beat.
Apple's core business is only growing stronger and stronger. The hundreds and hundreds of millions of loyal and extremely satisfied Apple customers are a testament to that, and the number of customers is only growing. And these are real customers, with credit cards, with real money, not like on other platforms, where customers are bums without money and people who live in third world countries who make $14.50 per month, if they're lucky.
Apple will still be alive and thriving long after all of those so called Wall Street analysts are long dead and six feet under. I do agree with the analyst in this article though, because a $200 target sounds about right, and I'd like to see Apple be at that mark in about 12 months from now.
From WSJ (not Forbes):
UPDATE: This post was updated to correct a spelling error in the second-to-last paragraph. Apple was “putting on the brakes extra hard” in December, said Mr. White. An earlier version said Apple was “putting on the breaks….”
So, even after Tim Cook tells them that they shouldn't try to read Apple by looking at the supply chain, they designate nine suppliers as the 'Apple Monitor'.
I have a question for these supply chain tea leaf readers.
If you wake up feeling unwell, do you go to your doctor and tell him to examine you by sticking his finger in a llama's butt? I only ask because your day job seems to involve doing something very similar.
Very serious question here: now we have this news (the opposite of which drive APPL to below $100), what in this world would drive APPL back up again?