Jeff Gundlach is a man with a mission. In this case, it's taking another opportunity to rain on Apple's (AAPL 0.52%) parade. Gundlach is the CEO of Doubleline Capital and has casually been called the "King of Fixed Income." He's also a staunch Apple bear.
Gundlach was recently on CNBC (starting around the 5:08 mark) reiterating his strong belief that there's more downside in store for Apple. More specifically, he thinks shares are headed to $425 -- over 20% lower than current levels. He notes that Apple went "vertical" around that price and since he's "been around for a long time" he figures that shares will go back from whence they came after "the bubble pops."
While he's typically known as a bond guru, Gundlach says his belief isn't because he's a "bond guy or a stock guy," but instead because he's a "market guy." That's some hard-hitting analysis right there, Fools.
Last year, Gundlach made his case a number of times throughout the year. In May at the Ira Sohn Conference in New York, he and Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn took opposing views on the Mac maker. Gundlach expressed some doubt that consumers would continue lining up for Apple's latest and greatest eventually. Einhorn, on the other hand, said that there's no reason why Apple's market cap can't reach $1 trillion, since it captures customers in its ecosystem.
At the time, shares were in the midst of a relative pullback that lasted just over a month between April and May. After all was said and done, Apple gave back 19% of its gains before resuming its upward course and tapping new all-time highs four months later.
In November, Gundlach said that Apple lost its innovative touch now that Steve Jobs is gone. He also joked that Apple may soon introduce new "tooty-fruity" colored iPads and call it innovation while mentioning the same $425 price target. It turns out that some analysts think future iDevices are indeed in store for a dash of color. BGR ran a poll and 35% of over 2,000 respondents said they'd be interested in a blue, pink, or yellow iPhone with another 28% open to it but wanted to see how they look first. Say what you will, but there might be some demand for what would inevitably be marketed as "the most colorful iPhone we've ever made."
As luck would have it, Apple shares rallied again after Gundlach's comments, although at this point they've given back some of those gains, but appear to be stabilizing. Will Gundlach ever be right?
