Looking for a Bottom

Looking for a Bottom Shares of Apple are down 9.4% in September and 20% in 2022, putting Apple on pace for its worst year since 2008, when it lost 57%. It's a sharp contrast to the last three years, in which Apple stock gained 34%, 81%, and 86%, respectively. Apple's recent slide has added a new dynamic to tech's terrible year. Until now, Apple had been something of a safe haven. The stock has been down in 2022, but not as much as its big tech peers. Now sentiment may be changing. BofA Securities cut its rating on Apple to Neutral from Buy. The firm said that Wall Street's earnings estimates are still too high given a slowdown in consumer spending. Apple, after all, is more of a direct play on the consumer than the rest of Big Tech. Microsoft and Amazon.com have their enterprise cloud business, and Alphabet and Meta Platforms sell advertising to businesses, not consumers. That puts Apple in a tough spot. "What we’re seeing is the consumer spending is starting to slowdown," BofA analyst Wamsi Mohan told CNBC about the downgrade. "Apple has been resilient to estimate revisions, despite the world changing. We think there's significant risk to these numbers." Most of Wall Street remains bullish on Apple, it's worth noting. Of the 41 analysts that cover the stock, 32 have a Buy (or Overweight) rating, according to FactSet. There are six Holds, and just three Sells. If you're an Apple shareholder, you could view that as bullish or bearish. Either there's wisdom in the crowd or Apple shares have further to fall as Wall Street begins to reassess.