Apple stock briefly dips below $400

• Apple stock falls to a new low point in more than a year
• Disappointing sales from an Apple chip supplier indicates slackening demand
• Well-known money manager thinks Apple stock could fall to the %24300s

Apple stock is now seriously bruised and has become damaged goods with investors, as the shares plunge Wednesday to its lowest price in more than a year.

Shares of the gadget maker, among the most widely held among individual investors last year, dipped below $400 Monday before closing at $402.59, down 5.5%. The stock was hammered after a company that provides it audio processing chips, Cirrus Logic, reported sales would be less than expected due to unsold inventory.

It's just the latest piece of bad news for the stock which could do no wrong in 2012, when it raced past Exxon Mobil to become the world's most-valuable company.

Last week, data from tech industry tracker IDC showed a big 8% dropoff in Mac shipments in the U.S. And at an conference in Los Angeles for money managers and investors Tuesday, money manager Jeffrey Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital told USA TODAY that Apple shares could fall to the $300s.

The selloff in Apple shares now places the former darling along with some of the most infamous burst bubbles in investment history. Shares of the stock, which hit more than $700 a share last year, have fallen 42% from that high. Analysts are racing to cut their price targets on the stock.

In addition, the company's fat profit margins are under attack as rivals take it on in the smartphone and tablet market with lower cost products, including those by Samsung running Google's Android operating system, and those with more advanced features such as Nokia, running Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. Android-based systems continue to outsell those running Apple's OS worldwide. Meanwhile, Apple's latest smartphones continue to be iterations of the last, sometimes including features such as changed ports that draw the ire of consumers.

Investors have been waiting for months for the Apple to release a new gee-whiz product to reinvigorate demand. Rumors have been swirling for months that the company might be planning a music streaming service, a TV hardware product and even a watch. But none of these products have materialized.

Additionally, carriers such as T-Mobile have been pushing cell phone plans aimed to wean consumers off of costly carrier subsidies of phones. If these plans catch on, that will encourage consumers to keep their smartphones longer.