At least one analyst is seeing the slowdown in Services growth anticipated by Apple’s CFO. Philip Elmer-DeWitt’s Apple 3.0 ran part of a note from Evercore analyst Amit Daryanani on Tuesday. That note notes a notable slowdown for growth in the App Store. Quoting his note:
App Store revenue slowed once again with the growth rate falling to 9%, which makes December the first month of single digit App Store growth (over the last 10 years).
While the slowdown was expected, he and his figured growth would drop to between 10% and 15%, not 9%. Still, the analyst says his team is comfortable with its forecast of 18% y/y services growth for the December-quarter.
Such a slowdown is the kind of thing that could freak investors out. Daryanani is aware of that and seems set on trying to stop it. Quoting his note again:
We would caution investors against reading too much into a single month and it is important to note that App Store revenue was still up 20% for the year. This is consistent with our view that Apple’s Services business can maintain high teens growth over the next 3-5 years.
On the upside, the analyst thinks “near term momentum [for Apple] will be driven by improving supply that could unleash upside to iPhone expectations in Dec & March-qtrs.”
Daryanani has an “Outperform” rating on Apple shares. His price target on the shares is $180.
