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Apple and Tesla, the stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which Seohak Ants invested the most, both posted record-breaking results, but their stock prices were mixed.
Apple is recognized as a safe haven asset and soared 5% in after-hours trading after the earnings release, while Tesla stock plunged more than 11%. Whether or not it can respond to the semiconductor supply shortage divided the market’s judgment.
Apple announced on the 27th (local time) that its sales for the fourth quarter of last year (September to December) reached a record high of $123.9 billion (about 149.1 trillion won), an 11% increase from the same period last year. On the back of record sales, net profit also increased 25% to $34.6 billion (about 41.6 trillion won) from the same period last year (28.7 trillion won). Apple stock closed at $159.22, down 0.29% from the previous trading day, but rose 5.04% in after-hours trading after the earnings were announced.
Regarding Apple’s share price rise, Krish Sankar, an analyst at Cowen, an American financial investment firm, emphasized that “Apple stock is considered a safe asset despite the volatility of the market.” “However, the rise was possible because the stock reported near-perfect performance during the downturn,” he added.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a conference call on the same day, “In terms of supply chain problems, the situation in the fourth quarter of last year was worse than in the third quarter of last year. “We remain cautious about when the supply problem will be resolved in the long term,” Cook said. explained.
Cook has worked at Apple since 1998, establishing himself as a supply chain and logistics expert. We have created a business structure so that we can reduce supply chain management costs and obtain high profits on a daily basis, not on a monthly basis. Based on a solid relationship with TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor consignment producer, it is receiving a stable supply of semiconductor chips, and because of this relationship, it is predicted that it will pour out the most new hardware products, including the iPhone 14, this fall. Not only the iPhone 14, but also the wireless earphone AirPods Pro 2 are expected to be unveiled together.
However, Apple is not completely out of the sphere of influence of the semiconductor shortage. This is because supply and demand problems remain in the semiconductor sector, which is mixed with other products such as display driving chips and power management chips. Still, Wall Street maintains expectations that Apple will introduce new products with the prospect that there will be no problems with Apple’s new product launch schedule.
“Investors know iPhone sales growth will slow this year,” the Wall Street Journal said. .
Tesla, which announced earnings a day earlier than Apple, plummeted 11.5% to $829.10 on the 27th. Its market capitalization evaporated by $109 billion (about 131.4 trillion won) in one day. Tesla reported record-breaking earnings the day before, but failed to dispel concerns about its semiconductor supply chain. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he would not release the Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck that was considered as a growth engine due to a chip supply shortage, within this year. “It’s currently impossible to launch a new model without reducing the total number of vehicles we’re delivering due to the ongoing chip shortage,” Musk said.
Instead, it turned to productivity improvement through the development of humanoid (humanoid) robots and securing competitiveness through the completion of autonomous driving. This suggests that it is difficult to predict when Tesla’s semiconductor supply shortage will be resolved.
The industry is predicting that the chip supply shortage will not be resolved until at least 2023. All automakers are facing the same problem. Most automakers are known to have secured only 5 days’ worth of inventory, but they have started to secure supplies in preparation for a deepening shortage of semiconductors. In particular, although demand for semiconductors is increasing, the fact that the number of companies that can supply semiconductors necessary for electrification is limited to a small number does not appear to be a problem that will be resolved in the short term, affecting Tesla’s stock price. Since most automotive semiconductors require higher technical difficulty and safety than semiconductors used in home appliances, the common view of experts is that this situation cannot be resolved immediately. As Tesla stock fell on the same day, its rivals Lucid and Rivian also plummeted 14.10% and 10.50%, respectively.
But many experts are optimistic about Tesla’s future. Emanuel Rosner, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said while maintaining a target price of $1200 for Tesla, “Tesla’s battery technology and manufacturing capabilities are accelerating the automotive industry’s transition to electric vehicles, which will help expand Tesla’s dominance.” said “Tesla is the fastest-growing company in the automotive ecosystem,” Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney said in a statement. “Tesla sees software as an important part of future profit and value creation,” he said.
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