For first time since June 2021, Apple market value below $2 trln ‎

The market value of Apple shares fell sharply on Tuesday after their large losses last year, making them on their way to end the session at a value of less than two trillion dollars for the first time since June 2021.

The wave of sales comes a year after the iPhone maker became the first company to reach a market value of $3 trillion

According to “Reuters”, Apple shares fell 4 percent to $ 124.60 after Jerome Ramel, an analyst at Exxene BNP Paribas, lowered his recommendation for the company’s shares to “neutral” from “overperforming”, reducing the price target for the share to $140 from $180, according to Refinitiv.

Rammell cut its forecast for iPhone shipments for the 2023 fiscal year to 224 million units from 245 million, reflecting supply chain problems from manufacturer Foxconn and consumers cutting spending on expensive phones.

According to Apple’s current share price, the company’s value is $1.98 trillion, followed by Microsoft, which is currently valued at $1.78 trillion.

Underscoring investor concerns that a slowing global economy and high inflation could hurt demand for Apple devices, analysts expect, on average, that the Cupertino, California-based company will report a drop of up to 1 percent in revenue for the December quarter in the coming weeks, according to Refinitiv. This will mark the first quarterly decline in Apple’s revenue since the quarter ending in March 2019.

“They (at Apple) prefer to lean towards customers of high-end consumer devices, but even this segment of the population may be affected by the high prices of everything,” said Kim Forrest of Bouquet Capital Partners.

Major technology companies sold off on Wall Street last year, as investors feared a hike in interest rates, which affected stocks with high valuations.

The combined market value of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta Platforms shares now represents about 18 percent of the total Standard & Poor’s 500 index, down from about 24 percent in 2020.

Even after falling 27 percent last year, Apple has delivered excellent returns to shareholders over the long term. Investors who bought Apple shares when co-founder Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007 and have held them since have enjoyed non-dividend gains of more than 4,000 percent, compared to a 180 percent gain for the S&P 500 over the same period.