One Reason Apple (AAPL) Stock Closed Lower Today

Apple (AAPL) stock closed lower today after reporting disappointing Apple Watch sales.
By Natalie Walters ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Apple (AAPL) - Get Report closed down 0.53% to $99.43 after Apple Watch shipments fell by 55% year-over-year in the second quarter to 1.6 million from 3.6 million, according to IDC industry tracker. 

Apple's share of the smartwatch market dropped to 46% from 72%, IDC reported. 

The decline in year-over-year sales can be partly attributed to the watch having its debut in last year's second quarter, Roger Kay, founder of Endpoint Technologies, told MarketWatch. "The numbers look bad because [Apple] did well out of the gate," Kay said. "It's a hard compare, because essentially there was an overabundance of enthusiasm in the beginning."

But Jitesh Ubrani, IDC analyst, said consumers aren't buying smartwatches at the same rate of early 2016 because they're waiting for a big update to the current technology, CNBC reports. 

Apple lagged behind other smartwatch vendors, Samsung and Lenovo which both showed 50% positive growth or more. 

(Apple is held in Jim Cramer's charitable trust Action Alerts PLUS. See all of his holdings with a free trial.)

Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation:

We rate APPLE INC as a Buy with a ratings score of B. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity and expanding profit margins. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: AAPL

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