Despite protests at Foxconn, which supplies iPhones to Apple Inc., Wedbush Securities said on Friday that the iPhone scarcity had gotten worse over the previous week.
Daniel Ives, a Wedbush analyst, reiterated Apple’s AAPL outperformance rating and $200 price target on Friday, despite the fact that he pointed over shortages of the iPhone 14 Pro and higher wait times for devices with extremely low supplies.
This “doesn’t bode well for the holiday season in Cupertino,” said Ives, “as we believe iPhone 14 Pro shortages in many Apple Stores are up to 25% to 30% lower than normal heading into December based on model, color, and storage.”
Apple shares fell 2.2% on Friday, making him the worst performer among his 30 stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.54%, and up about -0.5%. His COVID-19 zero policy in China continues to affect Apple’s supply chain. A protest was held at Foxconn’s main iPhone production base in Zhengzhou, waiting up to 40 days for the new iPhone 14 Pro.
Overall, Wedbush expects Apple to sell 8 million iPhones this Black Friday weekend, down from 10 million last year.
Overall, production issues are affecting about 5% of iPhone 14 units in the supply chain, and Ives estimates that Apple could face a significant shortage in December.
“As production capacity in Zhengzhou continues to decline over the next few weeks and worker unrest continues to rise, it is clear that there will be a significant shortage of iPhone Pros, especially in the United States during the all-important holiday season,” Ives said. Stated.
But the new developments in Foxconn’s history of labor disputes aren’t particularly encouraging.