Apple Stock Rallied This Year, But 5 Analysts Also Turned Bearish

Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL are poised to end the year with a gain of more than 80%, but the stock will enter 2020 with some skepticism from Wall Street analysts, according to CNBC.

5 Apple Analysts Turn Bearish 

Apple may be the "king" of large-cap companies, but it has also seen the largest increase in the number Street analysts turning bearish, CNBC reported.

No Street analysts were rating Apple's stock as a Sell earlier this year, but the figure now stands at five, according to data from Bespoke. 

Some of the research firms that turned bearish on the stock include Maxim Group and Rosenblatt Securities. The two firms are concerned that iPhone sales in 2020 could disappoint and also highlighted trade-related uncertainty. 

Apple's Changing Revenue Mix 

Apple's stock was helped by a favorable shift in narrative as the company diversified itself away from iPhone sales and into services and wearable devices, according to CNBC.

Coupled with other investments and initiatives in Apple TV, Watch and Airpods, the company offset some of the lost revenue from declining smartphone demand.

Deutsche Bank Neutral On Apple 

Deutsche Bank analyst Jeriel Ong has a Hold rating on Apple's stock. He expressed two areas of concern moving forward, according to CNBC.

First, Apple's stock price already factors in "significant" earnings upside. Second, incremental valuation improvements in 2020 are "unlikely to be a significant lever" for the stock after a strong gain this year, he said. 

Apple shares were down slightly at $289.80 at the close Friday. 

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Photo by Daniel Lu via Wikimedia.