Galaxy S4 losing steam? Samsung's shares follow suit
The company's shares are down about 6 percent Friday after analysts cast a wary eye on its stock over signs of sluggish demand for Samsung's new flagship smartphone.
Despite Samsung's claims last month that its Galaxy S4 was performing quite well on store shelves, and had reached 10 million units sold in less than a month, analysts are concerned things are changing.
Samsung's shares were down around 6 percent Friday, representing their largest drop since August. Blame analysts worrying about flagging demand for the Galaxy S4. JP Morgan was among the analyst firms that expressed concern about Samsung, and it cut its share-price estimate by 9.5 percent.
In a note to investors, JJ Park at JP Morgan said that supply chain checks are showing "disappointing" numbers in second-quarter shipments, adding that they're "way below our previous estimates." JP Morgan had expected Samsung to ship 80 million Galaxy S4 units this year. It now believes that figure will be closer to 60 million.
It was a similar refrain from several other analysts covering Samsung, including Kim Hyun-yong at Etrade Securities, who said that expectations of a cheaper iPhone launching this year have caused "overall growth prospects for Samsung's smartphone business [to] have dimmed."