Barclays downgraded the company’s shares to “underweight” and price target by $1 (roughly Rs. 83) on Tuesday, citing concerns over soft demand for the company’s purported iPhone 16 and upcoming Mac computers, as well as a crackdown in China on devices manufactured by external firms. This action resulted in Apple shares closing 3.58 percent lower on Tuesday, marking the largest drop in the past four months. There are rumours that the company that makes the iPhone will introduce a number of new products this year, including new iPad versions.
It has been reported by Reuters that Barclays has downgraded Apple’s stock from “neutral” to “underweight” while simultaneously cutting the price target from $161 (about Rs. 13,400) to $160 (approximately Rs. 13,300). After the brokerage’s pessimistic prognosis on the stock, Apple’s market value dropped by more than $100 billion (about Rs. 8,33,210 crore). On Tuesday, the company’s shares reached a seven-month low of $185.64 (approximately Rs. 15,500), which was the lowest they had been since the beginning of the year.
An analyst at Barclays named Tim Long pointed out that there is a lack of demand for the most recent iPhone models from the company. He also mentioned the difficulties that the company is experiencing in areas such as China, such as a crackdown by the government and the rise of Huawei. Long was quoted as saying, “The iPhone 15 has been lacklustre, and we believe that the iPhone 16 should be the same,” in a client note that was viewed by that news organisation.
Apple introduced the iPhone 15 series of smartphones in the previous year, which featured hardware enhancements over the models that came before it. These enhancements included a USB Type-C port, which was required by EU regulations, as well as a 3nm A17 Pro chip and an Action button, which replaced the mute switch on the more expensive models that were housed in a new titanium body.
Recently, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg made a prediction that the company’s iPhone 16 models will be equipped with a separate “capture” button. This button will allow users to rapidly activate the camera app and record movies. According to Gurman, the successors to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will also feature larger displays. The most recent models are equipped with Super Retina XDR OLED panels that measure 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, respectively.
Gurman claims that Apple is also working on adding many artificial intelligence (AI) features to its iOS 18 operating system. Gurman further claims that the corporation expects that the software improvements would help sell the rumoured iPhone 16 series, which does not have any substantial hardware advancements. According to the writer, the iOS 18 update will need to be “extra impressive” in order to entice customers to upgrade to this year’s models. This is because it is not anticipated that the business will deliver significant hardware enhancements with its subsequent phones throughout this year.
