Apple will not see rapid sales growth: demand for iPhone X falls

According to Goldman Sachs, Apple shares are unlikely to rise in the market as iPhone sales disappoint again.

The picture shows an iPhone X advertisement at a bus stop. iPhone X went on sale in China on November 8, 2017.

As early as February 1, the technology giant is alreadyreported weaker-than-expected iPhone sales for the December quarter. The company also gave lower than expected sales forecast for the March quarter.

Goldman reports “neutral” rating on Apple shares, predicting the company will report below-expected sales for the June quarter.

“We compare our positiveexpectations for long-term iPhone revenue growth… with weakening near-term demand, which we believe will largely be determined by stock weighting ahead of FQ2 earnings,” analyst Rod Hall wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. “In particular, we see a weakness in the consensus iPhone revenue forecast for the June period and believe the share price is unlikely to rise, although a repricing remains possible.”

Hall estimated Apple shares at $161, down 1% from Tuesday.

The analyst assumes that the share of usersiPhones that want to upgrade their smartphone will drop to 35 percent for the 2018 reference period and further to 33 percent in 2019 (the figure was 36% for the 2017 reference period).

Hall writes the following:“As June passes, we see room for improvement in earnings and share prices, but rest assured that investors need reassurance that the direction of growth has changed, and this may not happen until the start of the 2019 accounting period.”

Apple has not yet received official comments.