Apple shares close lower on Friday, company’s greatest mistake under CEO Cook has been not acquiring Netflix, Wedbush’s Ives says

The greatest strategic mistake Apple Inc has made since Tim Cook took the helm at the tech company is not acquiring Netflix, Daniel Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush, said for CNBC on Friday.

Apple shares closed lower for the fifth time in the past thirteen trading sessions on NASDAQ on Friday. The stock edged down 0.22% ($0.38) to $170.42, after touching an intraday high at $171.71, or a price level not seen since February 13th ($172.48).

Shares of Apple Inc have added 8.04% to their value so far in 2019 compared with a 10.72% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2018, Apple’s stock went down 6.79%, thus, it again underperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 6.24% loss.

Ives told CNBCs “Squawk Box Europe” that Apple was at present experiencing its “darkest chapter” since the iPhone era. Ives also said that the tech giant would need to improve its services offering, so that it could enter a new phase of growth.

“You need content, you need fuel in that engine. Theyre lacking original content and lacking video content, which is why we believe theyll buy a large film studio in 2019,” Ives said, cited by CNBC.

“Weve talked about potentially Sony, Lionsgate, A24 – a CBS or Viacom is potentially still on the table as well as a Netflix, as thats the key to drive the services business,” he added.

Despite that the next several quarters could be “an uphill battle”, Wedbush expects Apple to achieve a trillion-dollar market capitalization this year.

According to a report by CNBC earlier this week, Apple intends to introduce a streaming service of its own in April. The service is expected to include free original content for device owners as well as a subscription platform for existing digital services.

According to CNN Money, the 33 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Apple Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $180.00, with a high estimate of $245.00 and a low estimate of $140.00. The median estimate represents a 5.62% upside compared to the closing price of $170.42 on February 15th.

The same media also reported that 21 out of 41 surveyed investment analysts had rated Apple Inc’s stock as “Hold”, while 17 – as “Buy”.

Weekly Pivot Levels

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Apple Inc (AAPL) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $170.72
R1 – $172.18
R2 – $173.95
R3 – $175.41
R4 – $176.88

S1 – $168.95
S2 – $167.49
S3 – $165.72
S4 – $163.96