Business

Apple Stock In A $300 Billion Rut Since Its Last Earnings Report

November 2, 2023

Topline

Apple will disclose its latest quarterly results Thursday afternoon, looking to snap its rare extended losing streak following its last earnings report.

Apple shares are mired in an uncharacteristic slump.

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Key Facts

Shares of Apple are down 10.4% since its August 3 report, which, despite beating analysts’ top and bottom line forecasts, stoked concerns about the company’s ability to grow in its China segment accounting for about 20% of its total sales.

The downturn for the world’s largest company by market capitalization coincides with a more modest slump for the broader market, as the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 6% during the period.

Investor reactions to Apple earnings tend to be a mixed bag: Over its last 10 earnings reports, its shares have gained an average of 1.3% the trading session immediately after but are down 0.1% a week following the report, though the results are skewed by August’s slump which saw Apple stock slide 6.9% a week after.

Analysts project Apple to report quarter revenues of $89.3 billion and $1.39 earnings per share in its Thursday release, according to FactSet, which would be a roughly 1% annual decline in sales and 8% profit growth.

Big Number

$303 billion. That’s the market cap lost by Apple since its August earnings report, roughly equivalent to the total valuation of Oracle, the 19th most valuable American company.

Key Background

Apple surged to an all-time high, split-adjusted share price of $198 in July, but now trades at just above $170. The slide comes as investors increasingly heed to what the highest bond yields and interest rates in two decades will mean for the typically rate-sensitive technology sector. Despite the sliding valuations, other big tech firms have delivered third-quarter earnings results far stronger than their peers thus far. Overall profits at S&P 500 companies which already reported Q3 earnings are up 6.8%, but if you scrub Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, and Tesla from the results, earnings growth drops to a 1.2% annual decline, according to Yardeni Research published Wednesday.