Apple Inc. was removed from the convicted buy list of investment banks Goldman Sachs this morning, as the firm cited negative speculation ahead of the June release of the iPhone.

In research released Thursday morning, Goldman analyst David Bailey noted that the March quarter is traditionally slow for tech firms, and may pose an impact to Apple's valuation.

The major risk to Apple is that it is a high expectations, high beta company that has to get through the next 3 months without a specific catalyst, he wrote.

He reiterated the stock's buy rating and 12-month price target of $110, saying he believed the stock should be bought on dips as June's launch of iPhone approaches.

He said he prefers Hewlett-Packard shares over Apple shares at this time.

Shares of Apple slipped 0.57 percent, or $0.49 cents to $85.68 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange

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