The company's shares are down 31.5 percent since hitting a high of $202.96 in late December, in keeping with broader market trends. "We believe Apple would be negatively impacted by a further slowdown in consumer spending," Morgan Keegan technology analyst Travis McCourt said in a note yesterday. Apple issued a forecast on Tuesday that profits in the current quarter will rise 8 percent to 94 cents a share, and sales growth will slow to 29 percent- estimates below analysts' expectations and viewed by company watchers as a conservative reaction to the threat of an economic downturn. Still, some analysts see a buying opportunity as the company is in the midst of transitioning its growth story from the iPod to Mac computers and the iPhone.