Here’s a Vote of No-Confidence for Apple

The U.S market was now saturated and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) needed to focus on emerging markets such as China and India, Franklin Templeton Investments has said, adding that it had cut its holdings in the iPhone maker on growth concerns. The fund instead bought shares of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).

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“We trimmed on a few occasions last year,” George Russell, a portfolio manager for the Franklin Equity Group, told Bloomberg. “We are concerned about their lack of a strategy in the lower-end phone, which tends to be sold much more in the emerging market. U.S. is pretty saturated. It’s emerging markets where there’s incremental new growth.”

Apple shares gained 31 percent last year, but have dropped almost 30 percent of their value since reaching a record high in September. The stock fell to its lowest price in 11 months earlier this week after news reports that it had cut back on production orders of components of its iPhone 5 on weak demand.

Apple’s share price movement from September 19, 2012 to January 17, 2012: