Will Apple see a Scrooge-like Christmas for iPhones?
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Is Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) headed toward a not-so-Merry Christmas season with regards to the new iPhone 14?
The potential is there for a less-than-expected holiday season for iPhone sales, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Samir Chatterjee, who on Tuesday lowed his iPhone shipment forecast for Apple's (AAPL) December business quarter, which is the first quarter of Apple's 2023 fiscal year. Chatterjee said he believes Apple (AAPL) will ship 4M fewer iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max phones than he had expected. Chatterjee said his new estimates follow on the heels of him lowering his iPhone shipment forecasts in early November when he cut his overall iPhone shipment estimate by 8M units.
Chatterjeee said he made the moves due to "the impact of the recent supply chain challenges faced by Apple" involving its Chinese partner, Foxconn, which is also known as Hon Hai. For months, Chinese officials had implemented lockdowns and a "closed-loop" business environment around the massive Foxconn plant in Zhengshou, China, as part of the country's "Zero-COVID" strategy.
"We continue to see the supply shortfall continuing through [the] year-end and impacting the typical seasonal uptick in iPhone volumes [in Apple's December quarter]," Chatterjee said.
With that in mind, Chatterjee said trimmed his 2023 fiscal year revenue forecast on Apple (AAPL) to $405B from $407.2B, and also cut his price target on Apple's (AAPL) stock to $190 a share from $200.
Still, Chatterjee said Apple (AAPL) should be able to make up any iPhone shortfalls by the company's March business quarter "given the historical precedent of Apple consumers to wait through a [product] delay."
The issues involving Apple's (AAPL) production lines in China have led to reports that the company is seeking other countries as options for where it can build iPhones and other products. On Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) was said to be in the process of moving some of its MacBook production out of China and over to Vietnam.