By Emily Bary
Quoted shipment delays still ‘push delivery dates past the all important holiday season’
Another analyst is cutting his iPhone targets for the year amid production challenges for Apple Inc.
UBS analyst David Vogt lowered his fiscal 2023 estimates to 232 million iPhone units from 239 million units previously, despite some improvement in iPhone wait times.
Apple (AAPL) is dealing with production shortfalls for the iPhone 14 Pro line as manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., better known as Foxconn, has seen output sharply curbed by COVID-19 restrictions in China. Apple warned in early November that Foxconn’s primary assembly facility was seeing “significantly reduced” operating capacity, though conditions seem to have gotten a bit better since then.
Vogt wrote late Tuesday that “wait times across most markets including the U.S. and China improved relative to both last week and two weeks ago indicating the supply chain disruptions are easing on the margin.”
But those improvements are “not enough,” in his view.
In China, wait times for “high-end” iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max devices fell to 28 days from 36 days last week, he noted. In the U.S., they’re down to about 23 days from 25 days a week ago. Those delays still “push delivery dates past the all important holiday season,” he commented.
Vogt’s note comes amid ongoing questions from analysts about how much demand Apple will be able to delay as it works through production challenges, and how much will be lost for good as consumers aren’t able to receive what they want during the holidays.
“While iPhone demand is typically durable, we lower FY23 by the 7 million units to 232 million (prior 239 million) as the duration of the disruptions are not analogous to prior demand shortfalls resulting in perishability,” he wrote.
Vogt remains bullish on Apple’s stock, with a buy rating and $180 target price.
See also: Apple planning huge change as a result of European legal push, report says
Apple shares ended Wednesday’s session off 1.6%. They’ve declined about 19% so far this year as the Dow Jones Industrial Average has slipped roughly 7% in the same span.
-Emily Bary
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-15-22 0800ET
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