Analyst: Apple Is A Battered Beauty Ready to Rebound

It is “so bad that it’s good,” wrote Oppenheimer Asset Management chief technician Carter Worth in a research note, referring to Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) recent performance on the stock chart.

What is bad about Apple’s recent stock movement is easy to see. Since inching just above $700 per share in mid-September, the stock has traced a generally downward path to its 52-week low of $419, which came on March 4. This figure represented a decline of $286, or 40.6 percent, from its all-time high of $705.

In recent weeks, concerns over demand for the company’s iPhone has been particularly damaging to the stock. On March 6, Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung put forward an argument that the iPhone was running out of momentum. In a research noted circulated to investors, he explained that end-user demand for the devices is declining, and he pointed towards a recent reduction in component orders from Apple suppliers as the basis of his analysis.

“In conducting our regular field work with the hardware supply chain, we again find evidence of reduced demand to Apple’s suppliers for iPhone 5 related components,” Yeung wrote in his note, according to CNET. “While production does not directly translate to sales (for example, we estimate Apple finished 1Q13 (Dec) with [around] 10M iPhone units in inventory), we suspect this is an indication of softer demand for iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S.”