Like many other tech stocks, Apple (AAPL) had a very tough year in 2022. After notching an all-time intraday high on the first trading day of the year, the company’s stock price had fallen 28.6% by year’s end. Is Apple stock going down?
The iPhone manufacturer has plenty of company. Microsoft (MSFT) dropped more than 27% for the year, and the Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector Index (NDXT), an equal-weighted index of technology companies, declined nearly 40%.
The tech heavyweight took a hit in early November 2022 after announcing that its Zhengzhou facility in China would operate at “significantly reduced capacity.” The diminished output affected iPhone 14 Pro and iPhonePro Max shipments, causing a lag in delivery times.
Weak presales of the “non-Pro” models, which are in the lower price range, are also a concern. So the big question for Apple and its iPhone cash cow is: Can iPhone Pro sales offset a pullback in base model sales?
Is Apple stock going down?. Record inflation and cost of living increases in 2022 have put a damper on demand, leading to the FAANG favorites—now known as MAMAA for Meta Platforms (META), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet (GOOGL)—falling from grace.
Apple has been weathering the storm better than some large tech stocks, but concerns about sales of its latest iPhone line have put its future into question since iPhone revenue is at the heart and soul of Apple.
AAPL stock is struggling despite a relatively positive fourth-quarter earnings report for the 2022 fiscal year. Fourth-quarter and annual revenue were up 8% year over year at $90.1 billion and $394.3 billion, respectively.
Still, analysts are predicting a deceleration in revenues in Q1 of 2023 for the iPhone maker.
Apple became a common household name after the 1984 debut of the Macintosh personal computer, launched a mere four years after the company’s initial public offering (IPO).
In 1980, Apple floated 4.6 million shares at $22 per share. If you bought one share when AAPL had its IPO, you would now be the proud owner of 224 shares.
The Cupertino, California-company has completed five different stock splits over the past 40-plus years. A share bought during Apple’s IPO would now be worth nearly $30,000, a tidy sum for a $22 investment. That’s a gain of more than 136,000%.
Another way to think about it is if you invested nearly $1,000 at its IPO price and bought 45 shares, excluding fees, these 45 shares would now be worth around $1.35 million, as of today.
