Apple Sinks on Reports of iPad Supply-Chain Order Cuts on Astini News

The shares of gadget guru Apple Inc. (AAPL) are having a rough session today, with the stock dropping more than 3% to hit an intraday low of $391.30. At last check, AAPL was struggling to reclaim the psychologically significant $400 level, with traders taking their cues from the broader buying mood on Wall Street.

Driving AAPL shares lower this morning was a report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. that the company is cutting fourth-quarter vender orders by 25% in its iPad supply chain. According to the report, it was the first such cut that analysts at JPMorgan's electronic manufacturing services team in Hong Kong has ever seen.

The news for Apple wasn't all bad this morning, however, as analysts at Barclays Capital boosted their price target on the shares from $515 to $555 per share. Barclays maintained its Overweight rating on the equity

Taking a look at data from Thomson/First Call, you can see that Apple has no shortage of bullish followers in the brokerage community. In fact, 52 of the 56 analysts following the shares rate them a Buy or better, compared to three Holds and one Sell. Meanwhile, the average 12-month price target for AAPL rests at $500, a 25% premium to the stock's current trading range near $400.

Options traders appear to be joining analysts in their bullish assessment of AAPL shares. So far today, 151,401 call options have changed hands on the security, compared to a mere 81,769 put contracts. As a result, AAPL's single-session put/call volume ratio arrives at a bullishly skewed 0.54.

The most popular option on the day is AAPL's weekly September 30 400 strike call, with volume of 2,118 contracts on open interest of 2,042 contracts. Following at a close second is the October 400 strike call, which has seen 1,890 contracts change hands on open interest of 39,584 contracts. Meanwhile, peak put volume totals 1,576 contracts at the weekly September 30 370 strike, which sports open interest of 2,715 contracts.