Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been suffering from bad news stories in recent weeks. Let’s take a look at these stories and how they are affecting Apple’s stock.
Slow iPhone 8 sales
While Apple itself hasn’t yet released sales results for its new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, wireless carriers in both the United States and Canada are not reporting good news. In general, they are reporting sluggish upgrades to the new iPhone since its releases on September 22. Apple shares fell last week when this news broke.
Some analysts think this may be caused by die-hard iPhone users who are waiting instead for the release of the iPhone X in November. Two brand new phone releases in one year isn’t normal for Apple, so it is possible sales are being skewed by this change. However, the X will cost 40% more than the iPhone 8, and iPhones have never been cheap. Time will soon tell if users will be flocking to the new iPhone X.
Apple will report quarterly earnings on November 2. The quarter ended only eight days after the iPhone 8 went on sale, so we will only see preliminary numbers with this report.
Qualcomm lawsuit
The other newest piece of news about Apple is the lawsuit filed by Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) in China. Qualcomm is claiming patent infringement and wants to halt all sales of iPhones in China. This is not the first time someone has tried to halt iPhone sales somewhere or claimed that Apple has infringed on a patent or intellectual property. Apple has also been on the suing end in some lawsuits. These types of lawsuits seem to be common in the industry, and Apple has always been able to weather these storms in the past.
Investor takeaway
Do slow sales and lawsuit troubles mean Apple is heading the way of BlackBerry Ltd.? Not likely. The upcoming earnings results will give a good indication of how the company is doing. Just remember that iPhone 8 sales will make up a tiny portion of those results. Current analyst expectations are for U.S.$1.86 per share, with the high end currently at US$1.93 per share and the low-end currently at US$1.80 per share. We will know better how Apple is doing come November.
