Why Has Apple Hit A New Low?

Apple stock has notoriously been sliding since September, with a low point hit on Friday, March 1.

Its closing price by day's end on March 1 was $430, representing a 2.5 percent fall.

"Apple is now down almost 40% from its peak," reports Business Insider.

"And for the first time in forever," Business Insider continues, "anyone who has bought Apple in the past year and held it has lost money on it."

Business Insider suggests that one of the problems causing Apple's falling stock is the way Apple has changed its business recently. Other thoughts involve a fundamental change in attitude by the stockholders themselves who believe that the days of growth within Apple are over.

"One of the things that is not happening with Apple's stock anymore ... is tax-related selling," says Business Insider.

"Tax rates have already gone up. So anyone selling Apple now is selling it for reasons other than trying to lock in a low capital gains rate."

The company's earnings are expected to continue to drop, and thus there's no reason investors would pump more money into a sinking ship.

Apple has been reportedly having (and making) huge issues with its iPhone supplies. In a report by the Business Insider in Dec. 2012, the publication discussed Apple's "drastically" cutting its iPhone orders for the next quarter.

Forbes reported the drop was from 35-40 million to 25-30 million units.

Troubles with iPhone's assembler Foxconn's hiring freeze suggests, along with the drop in supplies overall, that the iPhone 5 was not the hit Apple had been hoping for.

Apple has also been notably slow on "innovation" as of late, with what Business Insider refers to as a "new-product blackout period."

"Analysts expect that we'll get something new from Apple in March," says Business Insider, "but it's not clear what."

Apple's earnings are also expected to grow more slowly than revenue (the opposite has taken place over the previous five years). This is due perhaps to "Apple's product mix shifts toward lower-margin tablets from the high-margin iPhone and the iPhone margin itself declines with the introduction of lower-priced phones."

The iWatch has been a huge buzz topic for device geeks across the globe, but as with some of the other hot forthcoming products that are supposed to come from Apple, no one really knows when it will be released.

There's no doubt, too, that whereas Apple is falling, competitors like Google and Samsung are on the upswing, stealing a great deal of Apple's potential customers. This means Apple has been forced to cut prices on its flagship products like the new Mac.

Finally, Business Insider believes (and its not the only publication) that Apple has been faltering ever since the passing of "visionary" leader Steve Jobs.

How will all of this continue to affect Apple's stocks? Only time (and Tim Cook) can tell.

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