“The lone trouble spot is smartphones, while most other segments appear to be in good shape,” Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz tells investors in a research note after visiting a group of Asia supply chain companies. For the smartphone market, suppliers expect limited to no unit growth in 2018, the analyst adds. For Apple (AAPL), iPhones X and 8 demand trends are “soft,” with “no signs of any deferred mega cycle in making,” Moskowitz contends. To reflect weaker iPhone units and average selling price, the analyst lowered his 2018 and 2019 earnings per estimates for Apple by 4.4% and 3.0% to $11.72 and $12.44, respectively. Moskowitz also trimmed his price target for Apple shares to $168 from $170 and keeps an Equal Weight rating on the name. Meanwhile, PCs are benefitting from enterprise demand for notebooks, which could be good for HP Inc. (HPQ) and hard-disk-drive stocks Seagate STX) and Western Digital (WDC), Moskowitz writes.
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