Traders see trouble for Apple despite some recent Wall Street analyst love
Apple shares picked up a gain and an upgrade from Jefferies going into the holiday weekend, but the ” Fast Money ” traders aren’t seeing fireworks. “The back half of the year for a company like Apple is going to be a problem,” RiskReversal Advisors’ principal Dan Nathan said on Wednesday’s show. “They still don’t have an [artificial intelligence] strategy. So that means that a product that has not been growing for the last three years is not going to grow again. … They’re going to miss an entire year of a product cycle.” Jefferies upgraded Apple to “hold” from “sell” on Tuesday and hiked its price target to $188 from $171 a share — citing pulled-in demand due to tariff jitters. The firm is also predicting a good June quarter. According to FactSet as of Thursday’s close, there are now just three Apple “sell” ratings on the Street. “Fast Money” trader Karen Finerman is also cautious on Apple – calling it her “least favorite” of the ” Magnificent Seven ” stocks. The Mag Seven names also include Alphabet , Amazon , Meta Platforms , Microsoft , Nvidia and Tesla . “When you think of who has a supply chain issue the most out of the Mag Seven … they’re just in the crosshairs of that,” the Metropolitan Capital Advisors CEO said. Meanwhile, Tim Seymour said he thinks a lot of the bad news surrounding China and tariffs has been priced into the tech giant. But the chief investment officer of Seymour Asset Management sees Apple’s multiple as the biggest issue. “That should be enough for most people,” said Seymour, who still considers himself “more glass half-full” on Apple. The iPhone maker’s shares gained 6% during the holiday-shortened week. However, Apple lags behind the Mag Seven index so far this year, off about 15% and up 3%, respectively. Apple will report fiscal third-quarter earnings on July 31.
