New York (AFP)
Apple, affected by sales forecasts down this quarter because of the coronavirus, lost about 3% Tuesday at the start of the session on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Californian giant issued a profit warning on Monday that it would not meet its sales targets due to the coronavirus epidemic that started in China, where the brand has many production plants and makes a significant part of its turnover. 'business.
Apple spoke of both difficulties in supplying iPhones made in China, and a lackluster demand for its products due to the temporary closure of its stores in the country.
"Work is starting to resume but the return to normal conditions is taking longer than we had anticipated," said the group, citing a "shortage of iPhones which will temporarily affect our income worldwide".
The company had already warned in late January, when it published its quarterly results, that the epidemic of viral pneumonia was causing uncertainty.
The group had then given a range of forecast sales for its second quarter wider than usual, between 63 and 67 billion dollars.
The apple brand no longer plans to achieve this initial objective.
"The duration of the impact of the Covid-19 disease is unknown but we believe that Apple's operations will eventually return to normal in China and that the company will return to a growth rate of its turnover by 5% or more, "analysts at Loup Ventures said in a note on Tuesday.
Apple has joined a long list of companies forced to change their forecasts due to Covid-19 disease. Groups in the luxury industry (Kering, Burberry), car manufacturers (Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla, Renault) or giants like Disney, which has amusement parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong, are among the companies who said they were preparing to be impacted economically by the epidemic.
© 2020 AFP