Shares of Apple (AAPL), the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, have received a rare “sell” rating from a prominent Wall Street firm.
Concerns over weak iPhone sales have led analysts at Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) to downgrade Apple’s stock to a sell-equivalent “underperform” rating.
Previously, Jefferies had a “hold” rating on Apple’s stock. The team of analysts at Jefferies, led by Edison Lee, also lowered their price target on the shares by 13% to $200 U.S.
In addition to slumping iPhone sales, Jefferies said they are also concerned about Apple’s new artificial intelligence (A.I.) features that have received a lukewarm reception from the public.
“Our concern about weak demand for iPhone has materialized,” wrote Jefferies in a note to clients, highlighting that shipments were down 4% in the fourth quarter of last year.
The analysts added that, “AI would be unlikely to kickstart a super upgrade cycle anytime soon.”
In recent months, Apple has unveiled a host of new A.I. features for its smartphones, including email summaries and computer-generated emojis.
However, Jefferies cites a survey showing that U.S. consumers don’t yet find A.I. features very useful, which suggests they won’t be willing to buy new electronic devices to get them.
Apple’s stock was down as much as 2% in premarket trading to $225 U.S. on news of the analyst downgrade. The stock has declined 6% so far in 2025.
Still, Apple remains the most valuable public company with a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion U.S., followed by chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) with a market value of $3.37 trillion U.S.
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