Gene Munster is standing by his prediction that Apple will be one of the best FAANG performers this year despite a “dark day” for the company and its shareholders on Wednesday.
The iPhone maker’s stock tanked more than 7 percent in after-hours trading after CEO Tim Cook announced a Q1 revenue guidance cut, but Apple bull Munster told CNBC the tech giant’s brand would help it bounce back in time.
“On the whole, Apple’s brand continues to be strong and, on the whole, we continue to need tech,” the Loup Ventures founder said on “Fast Money.”
It could take anywhere from a quarter to a full year “for investors to kind of regain some element of confidence … but I’m confident that this is not the beginning of the end of Apple,” he added.
Apple lowered revenue estimates to $84 billion from a projected $89 billion to $93 billion, blaming China’s slowing economy and iPhone sales woes. The stock’s 7 percent drop equates to a market cap loss of roughly $56 billion.
Munster is still calling the stock a “strong buy” and remains confident in the long term because 5G expansion in the United States will present “some huge opportunities ahead.”
“That’s going to be a major hardware upgrade, and I think that the conversations of the next few months will be a thing of the past,” he said.
Apple shares closed up slightly at $157.92 on the first trading day of 2019 after losing almost 7 percent in 2018.
Of the other so-called FAANG stocks, Netflix was the best performer in 2018, closing up nearly 40 percent, and Amazon finished up more than 28 percent. Google parent Alphabet closed down 1 percent, while Facebook fell 25 percent into bear market territory after a tumultuous year.
