Wall Street Not Impressed by Latest Apple Event

Wall Street analysts were reportedly underwhelmed by Apple’s latest event due to worries over the continued slowing of iPhone sales.

CNBC reports that following Apple’s recent event in which the tech company announced a number of new services, analysts were underwhelmed citing worries about the slowing of iPhone sales as a continued issue for the company. Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall stated: “Apple’s services reveal was materially different than we had anticipated. With small calculated impacts from these, ‘other services’, we expect the focus to return to the slowing iPhone business post this event.”

Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz commented on the event in a slightly more optimistic manner stating: “Overall, it appears that Apple’s new services provide better solutions to solve relatively niche problems in media business and they may prompt existing iOS users to stay more invested in Apple’s ecosystem. Pricing of Apple TV Plus is one of the biggest unanswered questions we have after the event.”

Morgan Stanley projects a higher stock price for Apple in the future stating: “Big picture, this strategy aligns with our thesis that Services, not devices, hold the key to Apple revenue and profitability growth over the next 5 years… However, the lack of specifics around pricing and timing limits us from raising estimates today…We still believe Apple is likely to bundle hardware/services and/or multiple services over time, with our September 2018 analysis suggesting Apple could generate $22-37 B in revenue by 2025 for an Apple Media bundle alone, up from $3..8B in 2018.”

Bank of America also gave Apple stock a buy rating but echoed concerns others had about the pricing of Apple’s new services stating: “Given some of these services are not available until the fall, it is surprising that Apple chose to schedule this event in March. Release dates and pricing for Apple Arcade and Apple TV+ were not announced, potentially because it is still working towards pricing agreements… In our opinion, pricing (and possible bundling of services) would in large part determine adoption rate.”

Read more analyst reactions at CNBC here.