Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) investors have been waiting for months for the iPhone X to hit shelves in November and potentially give AAPL stock a major shot in the arm. Unfortunately, the latest numbers from Loup Ventures suggest investors are no closer to getting clarity on iPhone X demand than they were when the device first went on sale a month ago.
Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster has been monitoring in-store and online lead times for the iPhone X on a daily basis since it first became available on Nov. 3. Supply of the new devices has been so limited and inconsistent that investors are having difficulty measuring market demand.
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On Sunday, Munster said online iPhone lead time has declined from 10.1 days during the week of Nov. 27 to 7.7 days.
But in-store availability is trending in the opposite direction. Munster says just 7 percent of stores that sell the device had them in stock, down from 16 percent of stores in the previous week.
According to Munster, it will likely be several more weeks before supply catches up to demand.
“We anticipate iPhone X lead times of more than four days to continue for the balance of 2017 and expect the iPhone X to reach supply demand equilibrium sometime in January,” Munster says. “That’s a slight positive for the outlook for Apple’s … quarter.”
KeyBanc analyst John Vinh says Apple and its iPhone supplier stocks will remain in limbo until investors can get more insight into iPhone X demand. “We expect supply chain stocks to remain rangebound until we can better assess true demand for the iPhone X,” he says.
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IHS Markit estimates Apple will ship a record total of 88.8 million iPhones globally in the fourth quarter. Apple would need 31 million (about 35 percent) of those units to be iPhone X models to generate an overall iPhone average sales price of $700 for the first time, according to DigiTimes.
KeyBanc has an “overweight” rating and $187 price target for Apple stock.
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Good Luck Finding an Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone X originally appeared on usnews.com
