By Barbara Kollmeyer
Hopes that Apple will see a rebound in demand for its products after the holiday season were dimmed amid a report that the company has warned suppliers of softness stretching into 2022.
According to a Bloomberg report that published early Thursday, the company has informed vendors that a production pick up in the new year may not happen. MarketWatch has reached out to Apple for comment.
Shares of Apple /zigman2/quotes/202934861/composite AAPL +1.41% came under pressure in premarket trading, dropping nearly 3% .
In October, Apple reported a rare revenue miss for its fiscal fourth quarter, due to slowing iPhone and wearables sales, with the company citing challenges from supply shortages. The company predicted at the time that chip shortages would be a pressure point during the holiday season.
Meanwhile, some on Wall Street are staying upbeat.
Wedbush analysts Daniel Ives and John Katsingris forecast a strong holiday sales period for iPhones, boosting their Apple /zigman2/quotes/202934861/composite AAPL +1.41% price target to $200 from $185 on growing confidence of the iPhone 13 cycle into 2022. Checks on iPhone 13 sales “continue to be much stronger than expected with our belief Apple is now on pace to sell north of 40 million iPhones during the holiday season despite the chip shortage headwinds,” they said in a note to clients.
Shares of Apple are up 24% year-to-date, well short of the 80% plus gains seen in both 2020 and 2019. In 2018, shares finished the year down more than 6%.
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