Why does this irk you? It's a (mostly) free market and people do as they please. The stock price follows that naturally. Before the earning, the stock is price

Why does this irk you? It's a (mostly) free market and people do as they please. The stock price follows that naturally. Before the earning, the stock is priced in at the value from 2). After the earning, the stock drops down to the price that's valued with the actual earning numbers, which is lower than 2). This should not be a huge surprise to anyone. The apple case here is only slightly exceptional in that Apple is known for giving very conservative guidances, which is why the analyst's estimates are almost always higher than the guidance. In the past quarters, even that number was exceeded. It's just not the case here and the stock drops accordingly. I do think there is likely potential for future growth given the extremely high guidance given for Q1, which knowning Apple, is still conservative. disclosure: i'm long aapl