Apple Loses $1 Trillion in Market Value

Apple Inc’s total stock market value slipped on Tuesday, falling below $2 trillion for the first time since early 2021, exactly one year to the day the company became the first public tech company valued at $3 trillion.

Apple’s shares fell 4% to $124.6 after influential analysts said they downgraded iPhone shipment targets for the fiscal year 2023 to 224 million units from 245 million units. Continued supply chain issues and consumer cut backs on buying high-end phones were the reasons for dampened numbers.

At current stock prices, Apple is worth $1.98 trillion, just ahead of Microsoft Corp, valued at $1.78 trillion. Investors feel that slowing global demand will lead to a 1% drop in December’s quarterly revenue report, marking Apple’s first quarterly revenue drop since the March quarter of 2019.

Investors on Wall Street have been dumping tech stocks with high valuations. The combined stock market value of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc and Meta Platforms now makes up roughly 18% of the S&P 500, down from 24% in 2020.

While Apple’s market value has tumbled, other tech stocks have suffered more. Shares of Amazon and Meta are down by about 50% and 63%, respectively. Apple is down by about 31% over the same year

Even after this fall, Apple has given excellent returns to long-term shareholders. Anyone who bought Apple shares when the iPhone launched in 2007 is today sitting on gains of more than 4,000%, versus 180% in the S&P 500 over the same period.