Apple Crumble: Tech Giant's Shares Slump

Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) shares are continuing to slump, amid worries about whether the company can keep up its recent level of growth.

The world's most valuable public company saw its stock price drop for the fifth day in a row on Tuesday, falling as much as $5.19 (£3.33), or 4.4%, to $113.25 (£72.71).

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) closed at $114.64 (£73.60), down 14% since hitting a record $133.60 (£85.77) back in February.

This means Apple is in a "correction", Wall Street jargon for a price decline of 10% or more from a peak.

The drop has wiped out more than $96bn (£61.6bn) in market value.

Apple's decline accounted for more than half of the 47-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday.

The company is also the biggest component in the Standard & Poor's 500, making up 3.6% of the index, a benchmark for most mutual funds.

Apple sold more than 47 million iPhones in the last quarter, 35% more than the previous year.

This drove the company's profit and earnings above Wall Street estimates.

However, demand for the iPhone and Apple's new smartwatch still fell short of some analysts' predictions, and executives gave a forecast for the current period that was also lower than had been expected.

These two factors have sent Apple's stock into decline since the company reported earnings on 21 July.

Daniel Ives, a managing director and senior analyst for FBR Capital Markets, said shareholders are also worried about recent hiccups in China's economy.

The country is seen as one of Apple's biggest markets for expansion.

Mr Ives added investors are looking ahead to the December quarter, which is traditionally the company's strongest.

Apple sold 74 million iPhones during that period last year, a 46% rise.

But given such high sales, it will be more difficult for Apple to record that kind of year-over-year growth again.

New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) products like Apple Pay and the anticipated release of new iPhone models later this year could give the company a boost, Mr Ives said.

The current slump in Apple's share price is not as severe as one almost three years ago, when investors worried the company had run out of ideas to fend off growing competition from other smartphone and tablet manufacturers.

Shares fell 45% from a split-adjusted peak of $100.72 (£64.66) in September 2012 to a low of $55.01 (£35.31) in April 2013.

By June of that year the stock had begun to climb upwards once more.