Apple's stock briefly tumbled nearly 8 percent Wednesday as analysts expressed their disappointment with the tech giant's latest quarterly report.
The company's stock fall took out $46 billion from its market cap, but it still remains the largest company in that regard. The stock held 6.2 percent lower at the close.
At least a dozen investment firms slashed their price targets on the stock, which was once considered a Wall Street darling. Among them was Drexel Hamilton, which cut its price target to $185 from $200.
"As the iPhone 6-Series nears the end of this two-year cycle and the macro backdrop remains challenging, volatility in Apple's results is to be expected," Drexel analyst Brian White said in a note to clients Wednesday. He said he reduced his fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue estimates to $1.37 a share and $42.05 billion, respectively, from $1.60 a share and $44.55 billion.
The tech giant posted fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.90 a share on $50.56 billion in revenue, marking its first quarter-over-quarter revenue decline since 2003. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Apple to report earnings of about $2 a share on $51.97 billion in revenue.
Apple also recorded its first-ever iPhone year-over-year sales decline. Despite this, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC on Tuesday that the company is in "the early innings of the iPhone."
Nonetheless, the Dow component recently fell back into bear-market territory.
In almost 2 hours of trading Wednesday, about $6 billion in Apple stock had changed hands. The company had seen 62 million shares traded, almost double its average 30-day volume average of 33.5 million.
AAPL in the last year
Other major tech firms also reported disappointing earnings for the quarter, including Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet.
— CNBC's Everett Rosenfeld and Robert Hum contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Drexel has provided Apple with investment banking services in the past 12 months.
