Apple shares plunge over 7% in response to lower than expected iPhone sales, tepid Q2 forecast

Investors and traders are dumping shares of Apple on Tuesday morning, following the tech giant's fiscal first quarter earnings report released after the close on Monday. At 10:15am EST, the stock was trading at $510.10 a share, down $40.40 on the day. Investors were disappointed in the number of Apple iPhones sold last quarter, even though the 51 million units that were purchased was a new record. Wall Street was looking for 55 million handsets to have been rung up during the three months ended in December.

Also hurting shares was Apple's forecast of Q2 revenue in the range of $44.2 billion to $44.4 billion. With the world's largest carrier, China Mobile, now selling the iPhone, analysts are expecting Apple to report $44.6 billion in Q2 sales. But Apple is known for a little trick it employs, which is to keep future expectations down. This way, the bar isn't raised too high on Wall Street so that it can appear as though Apple has surpassed forecasts.

Over the last 52 weeks, Apple's shares have ranged from a low of $385.10, hit last April 19th when fears raged that Apple had lost its 'mojo', to as high as the $575.14 share price reached on December 5th.

source: Yahoo