AAPL Stock Declines Amid Battery Slowdown Probe, Reports Of Weak Apple iPhone Sales

Apple’s stock value has been spiraling down for nearly two weeks. Share prices have been affected by reports of slow iPhone X sales and the battery slowdown issue that prompted an investigation by U.S. government officials.

Apple share prices have fallen nearly seven percent since Jan. 18 when they were priced at $179.26. The company’s stock price as of Wednesday afternoon was about $167.07. The lowered prices come after reports claim Apple is reducing its iPhone X production by half over disappointing sales during the holidays. The Cupertino firm has reportedly notified suppliers that its target is now 20 million units, down from 40 million iPhones. Another report this month said suppliers are temporarily stopping their production in February.

Although analysts believe Apple will post a year-on-year growth of about 11 percent, reports on Apple’s production cuts have spooked the markets.

“Recent data points on iPhone sales continue to point to weaker-than-expected demand for the new iPhone models,” said Deutsche Bank, according to Business Insider. “Our argument has been that the phones were too expensive to drive massive adoption, consumers are keeping their phones longer because of their high cost, the market is now only a refresh market, and the iPhone X features weren’t enough to drive non-early adopters to buy new phone.”

UBS also had a negative tone. The firm said fiscal 2018 won’t be a supercycle year like analysts had previously predicted.

Meanwhile, a report by Reuters on Tuesday said analysts expect Apple to post a record revenue, like the company expects, and will reach its $87 billion guidance for the holiday quarter. However, experts have cut revenue estimates for the March quarter and expect Apple to sell less iPhones in fiscal 2018 than previously thought. Analysts have lowered their guidance from $67 billion to $60 billion for the second quarter. One Bernstein analyst predicts Apple will sell as few as 220 million iPhones in fiscal 2018, roughly surpassing the 216.7 million sold in 2017, but much less than 2015 when it sold 231.2 million units.

Apple’s stock price was already decreasing throughout last week after a J.P. Morgan research note the firm’s analysts had lowered is sales forecast for the Cupertino company’s suppliers.

Apple is set to reveal its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Thursday.

U.S. Officials Investigating Apple iPhone Battery Slowdown

Apple has also been struggling over criticism about the slowdown of iPhone batteries. The U.S. Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission are investigating Apple’s method, according to a Tuesday Bloomberg report. Officials have reportedly asked for information from the tech company over the slowdown of older iPhones.

In a statement provided to various media outlets on Wednesday, Apple confirmed it had received “questions from some government agencies and we are responding to them.” The company also said it was launching features this spring that will allow users to see their iPhone battery’s health, as well as a power management toggle.