The Best And Worst Channel Stocks of 2013 (So Far)

Channel Stock Winners Far Outnumber Losers In 2013 First Half

Wall Street has had a very good 2013 with Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices increasing 13.8 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively. But it's been an even better six months for the channel stocks CRN followed, with all but one showing gains in stock values -- some in double digits. Take a look at who's up and who's not.

Emtec

CEO: Dinesh Desai
Dec. 31, 2012: $1.2
June 28, 2013: $1.0
Change: -16.7%


Emtec was the only channel stock followed by CRN to decline in the first half of 2013.

For the six months ended Feb. 29, Emtec reported revenue of just over $100 million, down 16.4 percent from $119.8 million in the same period one year earlier. The Springfield, N.J.-based solution provider reported a net loss of $1.8 million for that period, compared to a $2.3 million net loss for the same period one year before.

For the quarter ended Feb. 28, the company said it experienced weakness in demand for both procurement services and consulting services, and that customers put a number of projects on hold.

ScanSource

CEO: Mike Baur
Dec. 31, 2012: $31.77
June 28, 2013: $32.0
Change: 0.7%


ScanSource, a Greenville, S.C.-based distributor of specialty technology products, reported revenue of $2.2 billion in the nine-month period ending March 31, down 4 percent from the same period one year earlier. Net income for the nine-month period was just shy of $48 million, down from $54.5 million in the same period one year earlier.

In a statement in April announcing the third-quarter results, the company said that while North America sales were solid, international sales were "disappointing." Last month the company unveiled a new worldwide management structure that creates two technology segments: Worldwide Barcode and Security as well as Worldwide Communications and Services.

Insight Enterprises

CEO: Kenneth Lamneck
Dec. 31, 2012: $17.37
June 28, 2013: $17.74
Change: 2.1%


For its first quarter ended March 31, Insight Enterprises reported sales of $1.18 billion, down 5 percent from $1.24 billion in the same period one year before. The company said it saw weakness in demand for IT products in North America, partially offset by strong sales growth in European and Asia-Pacific regions.

Insight Enterprises, No. 12 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list, said on July 1 that it was participating in the Microsoft Devices Program, allowing it to resell Microsoft's Surface Pro and Surface RT tablet computers to commercial customers.

Tech Data

CEO: Robert Dutkowsky
Dec. 31, 2012: $45.53
June 28, 2013: $47.09
Change: 3.4%


On March 21, Tech Data said it would restate some or all of its quarterly and annual financial statements for fiscal 2011, 2012 and 2013 (ending Jan. 31). The restatements are being made "to correct improprieties primarily related to how the company's U.K. subsidiary reflected vendor accounting." The restatement could reduce operating income by a total of $30 million to $40 million and net income by a total of $25 million to $33 million over the three fiscal years.

During the first six months of 2013, Tech Data developed a new warranty plan for the channel, rolled out a partner enablement program around Brocade networking gear, began distributing VMware's vSphere with Operations Management, and created a service to help Cisco partners navigate that vendor's channel programs.

Arrow Electronics

CEO: Michael Long
Dec. 31, 2012: $38.08
June 28, 2013: $39.85
Change: 4.6%


For its first quarter ended March 31, distributor Arrow Electronics reported sales of $4.85 billion, down 0.8 percent from the same period one year earlier. Net income was $77.9 million, down almost 50 percent from one year before.

This year Arrow extended its ArrowSphere cloud service brokerage and cloud aggregation platform to partners in the U.S. and Canada. And, it prepared a new end-of-life services program to help channel partners with IT asset disposal.

Accenture

CEO: Pierre Nanterme
Dec. 31, 2012: $66.55
June 28, 2013: $71.96
Change: 8.2%


For the nine months ended May 31, Accenture reported revenue of $22.9 billion, up 1.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. Net income for the three-quarter period surged 29 percent to $2.8 billion.

Accenture made a number of acquisitions in the first half of 2013, including Acquity Group, a digital marketing and e-commerce company; and Fjord, which offers mobility and online services design consulting.

Accenture is No. 3 on this year's CRN Solution Provider 500.

Computer Sciences Corp.

CEO: Mike Lawrie
Dec. 31, 2012: $40.05
June 28, 2013: $43.77
Change: 9.3%


For fiscal year 2013 ended March 31, CSC reported revenue of $15.0 billion, down 2.4 percent from $15.4 billion in fiscal 2012. Net income for the year was $961 million, an improvement from the $4.2 billion loss the company recorded in the prior year.

CSC is No. 5 on this year's CRN Solution Provider 500.

Avnet

CEO: Rick Hamada
Dec. 31, 2012: $30.61
June 28, 2013: $33.60
Change: 9.8%


Distributor Avnet's stock has been on the rise, despite the fact the company reported a 2.7 percent sales decline to $18.9 billion for the first nine months (ended March 30) of the company's fiscal 2013.

In January Avnet announced it had acquired TSSLink, an IT professional services company, in a move Avnet said would expand its expertise in data storage and virtualization services.

In June, Avnet announced a deal to acquire Seamless Technologies, a systems integrator that specializes in cloud computing, data center automation services and information technology infrastructure library (ITIL) best practices.

Ingram Micro

CEO: Alain Monie
Dec. 31, 2012: $16.92
June 28, 2013: $18.99
Change: 12.2%


Ingram Micro reported a robust 18.8 percent increase in sales for its first quarter ended March 31 to $10.3 billion. But, increased operating and reorganization expenses, combined with currency fluctuations, reduced net income 45 percent year-over-year to $49.8 million.

In April Ingram rolled out a professional services platform for North America channel partners and added marketing assistance for cloud partners.

Perficient

CEO: Jeffrey Davis
Dec. 31, 2012: $11.78
June 28, 2013: $13.34
Change: 13.2%


Perficient made some aggressive moves to grow in the first half of 2013. It expanded its Salesforce.com-related services in May by acquiring Clear Task, a consulting firm for a Salesforce cloud applications. Earlier it bought TriTek to broaden its service capabilities in content management and business process management in the IBM market.

Perficient also launched a mobile computing practice in April.

Synnex

CEO: Kevin Murai
Dec. 31, 2012: $34.38
June 28, 2013: $42.28
Change: 23.0%


For the six months ended May 31 Synnex reported revenue of $5.05 billion, up 2 percent from $4.94 billion in the same period in 2012. But, net income was down 12 percent to $64.1 million.

This year Synnex has expanded its presence in mobility, launching a new global mobility solutions business unit and inking a distribution deal with Verizon Enterprise Solutions.