Price target: $222
Rating: Neutral
"The midpoint of FQ1'19 (Dec'18 QTR) revenue guidance at $91bn (range: $89bn-$93bn) missed our estimate by 4.3% and FactSet consensus by 2.1%, gross margin at 38.3% (range: 38.0%-38.5%) came in 0.1pp below our estimate and 0.3pp below consensus," the Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall said in a note.
"The implied FQ1'19 EPS at $4.54 (range: $4.36-$4.72) missed our estimate by 10.1% and cons by 7.7%. We believe consumer weakness in markets such as Turkey, Russia, India, Brazil and possibly China is driving the weaker guidance. Turkey, Russia, India and Brazil alone contributed 6% of total iPhone units in FQ1'18."
He added: "We believe Apple is seeing better price elasticity at higher price points as its sticky base of users are willing to pay up for more features. Should Apple find even more expensive features to add to its devices that it believes add value for users we think they would not hesitate to increase high end device prices further."