Apple Loses $97 Billion as Jefferies Downgrades Rating

Apple's market capitalization has taken a hit after Jefferies downgraded its rating to Underperform. The $6.62 per share decrease led to an estimated loss of $96.6 billion in equity value. Apple shares fell 2.11% to $306.44, with the bulk of the decline happening before regular trading started.

Jefferies analyst Edison Lee cited increased memory costs and suggested that Apple abandoned its all-glass iPhone initiative due to inadequate production yields. This comes despite Apple's strong June quarter results, which saw revenue rise 16% to $109.42 billion and net income climb 27.1% to $29.79 billion.

However, the gross margin was boosted by tariff refunds, contributing roughly two percentage points to the reported 50.1% margin. Without this effect, the margin would be around 48.1%, which is nearly 1.6 points above the prior-year quarter's figure.