Apple is down 6% since blowing out earnings on Monday
On Monday night, Apple reported another bang-up quarter.
It smashed expectations for iPhone sales, revenue, and earnings. The iPad was a disappointment, but that wasn't much of a surprise given how that business has been slowing for the last year.
The stock jumped about a point after hours that day, setting an all time record above $134.
So what's happened since then?
It's lost about 6%, while the overall S&P has only lost a percent or so. Why?
Some of it's just trading patterns - buy the rumor and sell the news, profit-taking, whatever term you want to use when you can't figure out a good reason why individual stocks are trading the way they do.
But it could be that investors are taking heed of the warnings presented by analysts like Gene Munster. Basically, the iPhone business has been on a tear since last fall, when the iPhone 6 was launched. That growth is hard to sustain. The last time this happened, with the iPhone 5, there was a slowdown a year later.
The counter point of view would say that the 6 is different. That's because this time, Apple finally unleashed iPhones with bigger screens, removing Samsung's one big advantage in the smartphone market. Since then, the iPhone has captured more "switchers" from Android than ever before, says CEO Tim Cook. It's also growing like crazy in China, thanks to a deal with China Mobile that didn't exist last time around.
But right now, investors don't seem to be buying that growth argument.