Jim Cramer slams Apple analysts

July 31, 2016

By GlobalPost WriterJay Yarow, Business Insider

Jim Cramer nuked all Apple analysts on his show last night, saying, "Wall Street analysts don’t exactly have a sterling track record (and they're paid fortunes, by the way) but this, this was perhaps the biggest screw-up we’ve seen with a high profile stock in ages."

The stock was slammed heading into earnings because of "awful and unhelpful" commentary says Cramer.

Analysts missed Apple's revenue by $2.4 billion, they underestimated iPhone sales by almost 5 million units, and whiffed on iPad sales.

Cramer's core diss of analysts: They freaked out about AT&T and Verizon, but those companies don't matter. He said, "They fret and extrapolate from all these individual negative data points from other companies, when they should be focusing on all the incredible opportunities Apple has going for it.

“I say stop listening to all of these bogus trading calls and focus on investing in Apple. That's the only way to make money in the most important stock of our time."

Cramer called out Peter Misek at Jefferies for cutting iPhone estimates at the last second, as well as Chris Whitmore at Deutsche Bank, Andy Perkins at Societe Generale, and Daniel Ernst at Hudson Square Research.

It's worth pointing out that Misek was still super bullish on Apple. If you listened to him, you'd be buying Apple's stock. As for the other guys, we're not familiar with their research, but it's possible there are a few outliers.

We read Apple research all day long, and the one thing we take away from it: Wall Street loves Apple.

Leading up to earnings, not one, but TWO analysts raised their price targets to $1,000. And the community in general was raising EPS estimates as the stock was getting slammed.

Maybe there were back channel whispers that Apple was screwed, but all the sell-side guys were screaming, "BUY THE STOCK!!!"

Did they miss on the individual numbers? Sure. But that's nit-picking. It's very hard to nail down the exact numbers. The general sentiment coming from sell-side is that Apple is a beast and you should load up the boat on it.

See Cramer's video here >