In the first week of 2024, Apple suffered two downgrades.。

On Jan. 4, local time, investment bank Piper Sandler downgraded six stocks to neutral from overweight, including Apple。Piper Sandler cuts Apple price target to $205 from $220。

In addition to Apple, Kumar downgraded several semiconductor companies, including Akoustis Technologies and Microchip Technology, among others.。

In response, Kumar said, "We start 2024 with a cautious attitude... We believe that the first half of 2024 will be challenging for the analog market, the mobile phone and the consumer terminal market."。"

Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar wrote in the report that he began taking a wait-and-see approach to Apple shares amid concerns about weak smartphone sales and a macroeconomic slowdown in the first half of the year.。

"We are concerned about mobile phone inventory.。He believes smartphone sales growth has peaked.。

Since last year, smartphone makers, including Apple, have been facing a slowdown in demand.。Even during the holiday season late last year, Apple's sales fell short of Wall Street expectations.。

In China, Apple's second-largest market, Huawei, Xiaomi and other manufacturers continue to attack high-end smartphones, and Apple's market share is being eroded, further exacerbating Apple's sales woes。In addition, Kumar believes that Apple may face more resistance under the influence of the patent dispute of the new Apple Watch and the strong dollar。

Piper Sandler's comments echo those of Barclays the previous two days。

Earlier this week, Barclays abruptly revised Apple's rating.。The agency's analyst Tim Long downgraded Apple's rating to "underweight" or "sell" from "equally weighted" or "neutral."。This is the first time the agency has downgraded Apple to this rating since 2019.。

Long noted in a report that while Apple is a consumer electronics giant, it lacks a positive catalyst for its future growth.。

Long said that sales of Apple's iPhone 15 series smartphones have been sluggish, and the sales performance of the subsequent iPhone 16 "should be the same."。In addition, he believes that Apple's other hardware categories are still weak, and Apple's service revenue growth may not exceed 10% this year.。

There is public data showing that Apple is the least bullish large technology stock going into 2024。The percentage of analysts bullish on Apple falls to three-year low after Piper Sandler's downgrade action。

Currently, Wall Street is almost unanimously bullish on big tech companies, but more cautious about Apple。According to statistics, Apple has attracted only 33 analyst recommendations to buy.。In contrast, Amazon has 68 buy ratings, Meta has 66 buy ratings, and Nvidia has 59。

This is closely related to Apple's performance last year.。Apple is the only big tech company with shrinking revenues in the past four quarters。For the new year, Wall Street is not very optimistic about Apple。According to the average forecast of Wall Street analysts, Apple's fiscal 2024 revenue is expected to grow by only 3.6%, profit is expected to grow 7.9%。

In 2023, Apple shares rose 48.2%, while the S & P 500 rose 24.2%。But into 2024, Apple has suffered a rare "four consecutive falls," a total of 5.5% and $164 billion evaporated from market capitalization。

It's worth noting that after evaporating so much market capitalization, Apple is currently still ranked among the world's highest market capitalizations, with a market capitalization of 2.$83 trillion。Microsoft has 2..With a market capitalization of $73 trillion, it ranks second, with only $100 billion left from Apple.。

If Apple continues to fall, its market capitalization number one position will probably be lost.。