Another Down Day for Apple Shares

Looks like Apple shares’ meteoric rise has been paused for the time being. The stock is down for its fifth straight trading day after hitting an all-time high of $644 last week, a high that pushed the company’s market capitalization past $600 billion.

This morning alone, Apple shares fell more than 3 percent. And they’re down nearly 8 percent from last Monday’s close (caveat: The stock is still up well over 40 percent this year).

So what’s dragging the stock down?

Any number of things, really. The antitrust charges recently filed against Apple and major book publishers by the Department of Justice. Concerns that Apple’s carrier partners are tired of offering high subsidies on the iPhone and will soon begin to rein them in, cutting into the company’s high margins on the device.

Another thought: This could be profit-taking, plain and simple.

Or, as ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall suggests, the stock could just be cooling off a bit. “We believe this could be a simple ‘collapsing’ on its own weight given the year-to-date move (i.e., AAPL up ~45 percent vs. S&P 500 up ~10 percent).”