The Best And Worst Technology Company Stocks So Far In 2015

Winners And Losers

There were some serious winners and some serious losers among the publicly traded IT vendors in our index in the first half of 2015. Of the 40 companies we currently track, 19 saw the value of their shares increase during the quarter while 21 saw declines. What's more, some companies saw their share prices surge by more than 30 percent, 40 percent, even 50 percent during the six-month period, while many of share price declines were well into the double digits.

How does that compare to the stock market overall? That was also split: In the first half, the Dow Jones index was down 1.14 percent, while the Nasdaq was up nearly 5.3 percent.

Here's a look at who was up and who was down in the first half of 2015, starting with companies with the biggest gains in share price, based on stock closing prices between Dec. 31, 2014, and June 30, 2015.

FireEye

CEO: David DeWalt

Dec. 31, 2014: $31.58

June 30, 2015: $48.91

Change: +54.88%

Cybersecurity startup FireEye remains in growth mode, reporting a revenue increase of nearly 62 percent, to $272.6 million, in the first six months of 2015. But profitability is still apparently a ways off, as the company recorded a $267.5 million net loss during that period, up from a $218 million loss in the first half of 2014.

FireEye's share prices got a boost in May when rumors circulated that Cisco would acquire FireEye for $9 billion.

Palo Alto Networks

CEO: Mark McLaughlin

Dec. 31, 2014: $122.57

June 30, 2015: $174.30

Change: +42.20%

Palo Alto Networks, another player in the cybersecurity arena, saw the value of its stock surge more than 113 percent in 2014. While that momentum has slowed somewhat in the first half of 2015, the increase in its share price was still good enough to make it to No. 2 on our index.

For its third fiscal quarter ended April 30, Palo Alto Networks reported that revenue surged more than 55 percent, to $234.2 million. While the company reported a net loss of $45.9 million for the quarter, that was less than a third of the $146.6 million loss recorded in the same period one year earlier.

Amazon

CEO: Jeff Bezos

Dec. 31, 2014: $310.35

June 30, 2015: $434.09

Change: +39.87%

In April, for the first time, Amazon broke out financial information for Amazon Web Services -- the world's biggest cloud IT operation. In the company's first quarter, AWS generated $1.57 billion in revenue, up 49 percent year over year, and $265 million in profit.

In the second quarter, AWS generated $1.82 billion in revenue, up 81 percent year over year and far above Wall Street's expectations of 50 percent growth. The AWS operation also reported operating income of $491 million, up an astounding 407 percent from one year earlier, giving AWS a 21 percent operating margin.

Tableau Software

CEO: Christian Chabot

Dec. 31, 2014: $84.76

June 30, 2015: $115.30

Change: +36.03%

In May, data visualization software developer Tableau unveiled Tableau Online 9.0, a significant new release of the company's cloud-based analytics software.

For the first six months of 2015, Tableau reported revenue of $280 million, up nearly 70 percent year over year, and a net loss of just over $29 million.

Salesforce.com

CEO: Marc Benioff

Dec. 31, 2014: $59.31

June 30, 2015: $69.63

Change: +17.40%

Salesforce was the subject of a series of takeover rumors through April and May with IBM, Microsoft and SAP all said to be bidding for the cloud application vendor. But it didn't happen -- not that surprising, given that the company's high stock price would have made an acquisition very expensive.

For its first fiscal quarter, ended April 30, Salesforce reported sales of $1.51 billion, up 23 percent year over year, and a profit of $4.09 million. The revenue figure puts Salesforce on track for an annual run rate of $6 billion in sales.

Panasonic

CEO (North America): Joe Taylor

Dec. 31, 2014: $11.77

June 30, 2015: $13.72

Change: +16.57%

For its fiscal year ended March 31, Panasonic reported sales of 7.72 trillion yen ($63.8 billion), down 0.27 percent from fiscal 2014. But net income for the year rose 49 percent, to $179.5 billion yen ($1.48 billion)

For the first quarter of fiscal 2016, Panasonic reported sales of 1.86 trillion yen ($14.92 billion), up one-third of 1 percent year over year. Net income was $59.5 billion yen ($477.8 million), up 57 percent from the same period one year earlier.

Juniper Networks

CEO: Rami Rahim

Dec. 31, 2014: $22.32

June 30, 2015: $25.97

Change: +16.35%

For the first two quarters of fiscal 2015 (ended June 30), Juniper Networks reported revenue of $2.29 billion, down more than 4 percent from the same period last year. Net income for the six-month period was down nearly 3 percent, to $238.2 million.

In April Juniper unveiled new hardware for its Juniper Networks SRX5800 Services Gateway that the company said offered enhancements that increase available Internet Mix firewall throughput up to 2 terabits per second, helping businesses and service providers minimize security bottlenecks while increasing network bandwidth.

Apple

CEO: Tim Cook

Dec. 31, 2014: $109.33

June 30, 2015: $125.43

Change: +14.73%

In March, Apple debuted its long-anticipated Apple Watch, the company's smartwatch entry into the burgeoning wearables market.

Apple's stock price also likely got a boost from the blowout results of its second fiscal quarter, ended March 28 and announced in April. Sales for the quarter grew 27 percent year over year, to $58 billion, while net income surged 33 percent, to $13.6 billion.

The company's sales continued to surge in the second quarter, growing 33 percent, to $49.6 billion. But those results were revealed in late July and would not have impacted share prices in the period covered here.

Citrix Systems

CEO: Mark Templeton

Dec. 31, 2014: $63.80

June 30, 2015: $70.16

Change: +9.97%

Citrix Systems was the subject of numerous rumors during the first half of 2015, including reports that the company was an acquisition target and that it was considering spinning off its online services unit.

What wasn't rumor were the demands for change coming from Elliott Management Group, a New York hedge fund company that acquired a 7.1 percent stake in Citrix. Elliott pressed Citrix to cut its operating expenses, overhaul its channel strategy, improve its sales and marketing efforts, and jettison underperforming product lines.

Red Hat

CEO: James Whitehurst

Dec. 31, 2014: $69.14

June 30, 2015: $75.93

Change: +9.82%

In June, Red Hat hired former Cisco Systems CFO Frank Calderoni to be the software vendor's new CFO, responsible for leading the company's global finance organization and for managing its IT and operations teams.

For its first fiscal quarter, ended May 31, Red Hat reported revenue of $481 million, up 14 percent year over year, while net income rose more than 27 percent, to $48.1 million.

Lexmark International

CEO: Paul Rooke

Dec. 31, 2014: $41.27

June 30, 2015: $44.20

Change: +7.10%

Lexmark has been transitioning from a hardware-centric printer manufacturing company to focus more on document management software, print management solutions, and connecting structured and unstructured print and digital information.

On May 21, Lexmark completed its $1 billion acquisition of Kofax, a developer of applications that capture information about customer interactions. The move nearly doubles the size of Lexmark's enterprise software business, to approximately $700 million.

QLogic

CEO: Prasad Rampalli

Dec. 31, 2014: $13.32

June 30, 2015: $14.19

Change: +6.53%

In April, network infrastructure technology manufacturer QLogic reported that sales for its fiscal year ended March 29 grew nearly 13 percent year over year, to $520.2 million. The company reported net income of $50.6 million, compared with an $18.3 million loss in fiscal 2014.

For its first fiscal quarter, ended June 28, QLogic reported sales of $113.4 million, down 5 percent from the same period one year ago. Net income for the quarter was down 57 percent, to $2.6 million.

Lenovo Group

CEO: Yang Yuanqing

Dec. 31, 2014: $26.22

June 30, 2015: $27.74

Change: +5.80%

Lenovo, fresh off its purchase of IBM's x86 server business, has been expanding beyond its core SMB market to enterprise customers. The company recently opened a high-performance computing center in Germany, named former Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci its new corporate president, and partnered with EMC on converged infrastructure. In May, the company launched a new line of storage array systems targeting big-company customers.

In May, Lenovo said revenue in the fiscal year ended March 31 grew 20 percent year over year, to $46.3 billion, while profit grew 1 percent, to $829 million.

AT&T

CEO: Randall Stephenson

Dec. 31, 2014: $33.59

June 30, 2015: $35.52

Change: +5.75%

For the first six months of 2015, AT&T reported revenue of $65.59 billion, up less than 1 percent from $65.05 billion in the first half of 2014. Net income, however, plunged 13.3 percent, to $6.24 billion.

VMware

CEO: Pat Gelsinger

Dec. 31, 2014: $82.52

June 30, 2015: $85.74

Change: +3.90%

For the first six months of 2015, VMware reported revenue of $3.03 billion, up 7.6 percent from $2.82 billion in the same period in 2014. But net income for the first half of the year edged up less than 1 percent, to $368 million.

The revenue figure was reduced by $75.5 million because of a payment the company made to the U.S. Department of Justice and the General Services Administration to settle a civil lawsuit. That lawsuit alleged that VMware and reseller partner Carahsoft overcharged the federal government for VMware products and services.

VMware was also stung in March on the news that the Department of Defense had canceled a five-year, $1.6 billion enterprise licensing contract with the virtualization technology company.

IBM

CEO: Virginia Rometty

Dec. 31, 2014: $160.44

June 30, 2015: $162.66

Change: +1.38%

IBM's stock recorded a small gain in the first half of 2015 despite the company's continuing revenue decline and struggles to focus on software and services.

For the first six months of 2015, IBM reported revenue of $40.40 billion, down 12.7 percent from $46.28 billion in the first half of 2014. That included a stunning 28 percent drop in hardware systems sales -- even after accounting for the Oct. 1, 2014, sale of the company's x86 server business to Lenovo.

Net income for the first half of 2015 was $5.78 billion, down 11.4 percent year over year.

Check Point Software Technologies

CEO: Gil Shwed

Dec. 31, 2014: $78.57

June 30, 2015: $79.55

Change: +1.25%

For the first six months of 2015, security software developer Check Point Software Technologies reported revenue of $767.9 million, up 9 percent from $704.8 million in the first half of 2014. Net income for the period grew more than 3 percent, to $323.5 million.

In February, Check Point acquired Israel-based security startup Hyperwise in a bid to expand its technology offerings for protecting against advanced threats. The move also put Check Point in closer head-to-head competition with rival Palo Alto Networks. And in April the company bought Lacoon Mobile Security, adding comprehensive advanced threat protection technology for Android and iOS devices to its product portfolio.

SAP

CEO: Bill McDermott

Dec. 31, 2014: $69.65

June 30, 2015: $70.23

Change: +0.83%

SAP has been transforming itself from its core business of selling on-premise applications to providing cloud-based applications and services. While SAP's cloud services revenue has been ramping up, the company has been restructuring its workforce as part of the shift and there have been concerns about the impact on the company's profit margins.

In the company's second quarter, ended June 30, cloud subscription and support revenue grew 129 percent year over year. to 555 million euros ($613.5 million), while new cloud bookings soared 162 percent, to 203 million euros ($224.4 million).

In February, SAP launched S/4HANA, the next generation of the company's flagship application suite.

Brocade Communications Systems

CEO: Lloyd Carney

Dec. 31, 2014: $11.84

June 30, 2015: $11.88

Change: +0.34%

In May, Brocade reported that revenue in its second fiscal quarter, ended May 2, was $546.6 million, up 2 percent from the same quarter last year. Net income for the quarter was $77 million, compared with a $13.7 million net loss in last year's second fiscal quarter.

In February, Brocade announced plans to acquire Riverbed Technology's SteelApp product line in a deal designed to strengthen Brocade's offerings for its data center and service provider customers. It completed the acquisition in early March.

Google

CEO: Larry Page

Dec. 31, 2014: $526.40

June 30, 2015: $520.51

Change: -1.12%

Google is the first company on our index to record a stock price decline in the first half of 2015.

At its annual I/O developer conference in June, Google unveiled a number of new projects it has in the works, including the Project Vault computer the size of a microSD card, the next release of Android called "Android M," and the Project Brillo operating system for the Internet of Things.

For the first six months of 2015, Google reported revenue of $34.99 billion, up 11.5 percent from $31.38 billion in the first half of 2014. Net income was $7.45 billion, up nearly 11 percent from $6.72 billion one year earlier.

Cisco

CEO: Chuck Robbins

Dec. 31, 2014: $27.82

June 30, 2015: $27.46

Change: -1.29%

On May 4, Cisco announced that longtime CEO John Chambers would step down and that 17-year Cisco veteran Chuck Robbins would take over as CEO on July 26. That triggered an ongoing series of management changes, including the departures of president and chief operating officer Gary Moore and president of development and sales Rob Lloyd.

In May, Cisco reported that revenue for its third fiscal quarter, ended April 25, grew more than 5 percent year over year, to $12.14 billion, while net income increased nearly 12 percent, to $2.44 billion.

For the first three quarters of fiscal 2015, Cisco reported revenue of $36.32 billion, up 4.4 percent from sales of $34.79 billion in the first three quarters of fiscal 2014. Net income for the three quarters was up almost 19 percent, to $6.66 billion.

CA Technologies

CEO: Michael Gregoire

Dec. 31, 2014: $30.45

June 30, 2015: $29.29

Change: -3.81%

CA Technologies has been in turnaround mode for some time as the company retools to focus on IT and cloud management, security and DevOps products and services.

On May 27, CA announced a deal to acquire Rally Software, a provider of Agile software development and services, for about $480 million. The acquisition was completed in early July. And in early June, CA bought Grid Tools, a developer of test data management and automated test design software tools.

For the company's fiscal first quarter, ended June 30, CA reported revenue of $977 million, down 9 percent from $1.07 billion in the same period one year before. Net income for the quarter declined more than 2 percent, to $212 million.

Quantum

CEO: Jon Gacek

Dec. 31, 2014: $1.76

June 30, 2015: $1.68

Change: -4.55%

Quantum reported that revenue for the company's fiscal 2016 first quarter, ended June 30, declined more than 13 percent year over year, to $110.9 million. And the developer of data storage, archiving and protection technology reported a net loss of $10.8 million for the quarter, more than double the $4.3 million loss the company reported in the same quarter one year earlier.

Microsoft

CEO: Satya Nadella

Dec. 31, 2014: $46.45

June 30, 2015: $44.15

Change: -4.95%

Microsoft spent most of the first half of 2015 gearing up for the July launch of Windows 10, the new release of the company's flagship software. CEO Satya Nadella officially unveiled Windows 10 in January.

The software giant also launched a major restructuring in June that included the departure of several top executives, including Stephen Elop, who was head of the devices business; Kirill Tatarinov, who managed the Business Solutions Group; and Eric Rudder, chief of advanced strategy.

For fiscal 2015, ended June 30, Microsoft reported revenue of $93.58 billion, up nearly 8 percent from $86.83 billion in fiscal 2014. But net income for the year was only $12.19 billion, compared with $22.07 billion in fiscal 2014, because of more than $10 billion in "impairment, integration and restructuring" charges.

F5 Networks

CEO: Manny Rivelo

Dec. 31, 2014: $130.47

June 30, 2015: $120.35

Change: -7.76%

In April, F5 Networks announced that Manny Rivelo, executive vice president of strategic solutions, would become the company's new CEO starting July 1. He replaced longtime CEO John McAdam, who retired and became chairman of the company's board.

For the first nine months (ended June 30) of fiscal 2015, F5 reported revenue of $1.42 billion, up 12 percent from $1.27 billion in the same period in fiscal 2014. Net income for the nine months was $268 million, up more than 23 percent from $217.2 million one year earlier.

Symantec

CEO: Michael Brown

Dec. 31, 2014: $25.66

June 30, 2015: $23.25

Change: -9.39%

In the first half of 2015, Symantec was deeply involved in developing plans to split into two companies, one focused on security technology and the other on data management. While the plan called for the final legal split to be accomplished by January 2016, reports circulated in April that Symantec was shopping around its Veritas storage and data backup division to private investors.

Earlier this month, outside of the time period covered by this stock price analysis, Symantec announced a deal to sell Veritas to The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, for $8 billion.

In May, Symantec reported revenue of $6.51 billion for its fiscal 2015 ended April 3, down 3 percent from fiscal 2014, while net income declined 2 percent, to $878 million.

Advanced Micro Devices

CEO: Lisa Su

Dec. 31, 2014: $2.67

June 30, 2015: $2.40

Change: -10.11%

In April, Advanced Micro Devices announced plans to exit its high-density SeaMicro microserver business as part of a strategy "to simplify and sharpen the company's investment focus."

For the six months ended June 27, AMD reported revenue of $1.97 billion, down more than 30 percent from $2.84 billion in the first half of 2014. The chipmaker's net loss grew to $361 million from $56 million in the same period one year earlier.

Oracle

CEOs: Mark Hurd and Safra Catz

Dec. 31, 2014: $44.97

June 30, 2015: $40.30

Change: -10.38%

Oracle is another company that's trying to build up its cloud computing sales while maintaining its core lines of business.

In June, the company reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal 2015. For all of fiscal 2015, Oracle recorded revenue of $38.23 billion, down a fraction of a percentage point from $38.28 billion in fiscal 2014. Net income, however, was down 9 percent year over year, to $9.94 billion, from nearly $11 billion in fiscal 2014.

The vendor's cloud-related sales grew during the year: Cloud Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service revenue were up 32 percent year over year, while cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service revenue grew 33 percent. But revenue from new software licenses, Oracle's core software products, was down 9 percent.

EMC

CEO: Joe Tucci

Dec. 31, 2014: $29.74

June 30, 2015: $26.39

Change: -11.26%

In May, EMC struck a deal to acquire Virtustream, a developer of cloud software and Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings, for $1.2 billion in a move that expands EMC's presence in the hybrid cloud services market. The acquisition was completed in July.

For the six months ended June 30, EMC reported revenue of $3.03 billion, up more than 7 percent from $2.82 billion in the first half of 2014. But net income for the period was up less than 1 percent year over year, at $368 million.

Motorola Solutions

CEO: Greg Brown

Dec. 31, 2014: $67.08

June 30, 2015: $57.34

Change: -14.52%

For the first six months of 2015, Motorola Solutions reported sales of $2.59 billion, down more than 1 percent from $2.62 billion in the first half of 2014. But net earnings plunged more than 77 percent, to $217 million, from $951 million in the same period one year earlier.

Netgear

CEO: Patrick Lo

Dec. 31, 2014: $35.58

June 30, 2015: $30.02

Change: -15.63%

Network equipment maker NetGear reported revenue of $597.9 million for the first six months of 2015, down 13 percent from $687 million in the first half of 2014. Net income was down 60 percent, to $11.7 million, in the first half, in contrast with the vendor's $29.1 million net income in the first half of last year.

NetSuite

CEO: Zach Nelson

Dec. 31, 2014: $109.17

June 30, 2015: $91.75

Change: -15.96%

NetSuite has experienced rapid growth in recent years: For the first six months of this year, the cloud application provider reported revenue of $342.1 million, up 34 percent from the same period last year. The company has consistently reported quarterly growth in the range of 33 percent to 35 percent.

But the company reported a $55 million loss for the six-month period, compared with a $45.4 million loss in the first half of 2014. The company's stock has lost some of its value during the past year as some investors and financial analysts begin looking for signs of profitability.

In April, NetSuite struck a deal to acquire Bronto Software, a provider of cloud-based commerce marketing applications, for about $200 million. The acquisition was completed in June.

Intel

CEO: Brian Krzanich

Dec. 31, 2014: $36.29

June 30, 2015: $30.42

Change: -16.18%

Chipmaker Intel has been taking steps to reduce its reliance on the stagnant PC market and expand its offerings for the nascent Internet-of-Things arena. That business segment accounted for $2.1 billion in sales for Intel in 2014.

In early June, it agreed to acquire Altera, a manufacturer of semiconductors with programmability, security and high-performance features for IoT applications, for $16.7 billion.

For the first six months of 2015 Intel reported revenue of $25.98 billion, down more than 2 percent from the first half of 2014. Net income for the six months was down less than 1 percent year over year, to $4.70 billion.

CommVault Systems

CEO: N. Robert Hammer

Dec. 31, 2014: $51.69

June 30, 2015: $42.41

Change: -17.95%

For its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, data and information management software developer CommVault reported revenue of $139.1 million, down almost 9 percent from $152.6 million in last year's first fiscal quarter. The company reported a net loss of $1.3 million for the quarter, compared with net income of $12.7 million one year earlier.

Xerox

CEO: Ursula Burns

Dec. 31, 2014: $13.86

June 30, 2015: $10.64

Change: -23.23%

For the first half of 2015, Xerox reported sales of $9.06 billion, down 7 percent from the $9.71 billion in revenue the company reported in the first half of 2014. Net income for the six-month period plunged 57 percent, to $237 million from $547 million one year before.

In December, Xerox announced a deal to sell its IT outsourcing business to Atos, a France-based IT services company, for $1.05 billion. On June 30, the company announced that the sale had been completed.

NetApp

CEO: George Kurian

Dec. 31, 2014: $41.45

June 30, 2015: $31.56

Change: -23.86%

It's been a turbulent year so far for storage technology vendor NetApp, with declining commercial and channel sales, lackluster financial results and several rounds of layoffs.

In June, the company ousted long-time CEO Tom Georgens and replaced him with George Kurian, who had been serving as executive vice president of product operations.

In May, NetApp reported that for all of fiscal 2015 (ended April 24), revenue was $6.12 billion, down more than 3 percent from $6.33 billion in fiscal 2014. Net income for the year was $559.9 million, down more than 12 percent from $637.5 million in fiscal 2014.

Hewlett-Packard

CEO: Meg Whitman

Dec. 31, 2014: $40.13

June 30, 2015: $30.01

Change: -25.22%

Industry giant Hewlett-Packard has spent the first half of 2015 preparing to execute its planned split into two Fortune 50 companies: a $56 billion enterprise computing business known as Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a $56 billion PC and printing business called HP Inc. HP expects to complete the split by Nov. 1.

For the six months ended April 30, HP reported revenue of $52.92 billion, down nearly 5 percent from $55.46 billion in the same period one year earlier. Net earnings for the six months were down almost 12 percent, to $2.38 billion, from $2.70 billion one year before.

BlackBerry

CEO: John Chen

Dec. 31, 2014: $10.98

June 30, 2015: $8.18

Change: -25.50%

BlackBerry's stock rallied at times in 2014 as CEO John Chen made moves to turn around the ailing mobile device maker. But the mobile communications technology company continues to struggle to find its way back. And that's reflected in the company's stock performance.

For its first fiscal 2016 quarter, ended May 30, BlackBerry reported revenue of $658 million, down nearly 32 percent from $966 million in the same period one year earlier. But net income for the quarter soared to $68 million in the first quarter, compared to $23 million one year before.

Seagate Technology

CEO: Stephen Luczo

Dec. 31, 2014: $66.50

June 30, 2015: $47.50

Change: -28.57%

For its fiscal 2015 ended July 3, storage technology company Seagate reported revenue of $13.74 billion, essentially flat, with revenue of $13.72 billion in fiscal 2014. Net income for fiscal 2015 did grow 11 percent, however, to $1.74 billion from $1.57 billion in fiscal 2014.

Western Digital

CEO: Steve Milligan

Dec. 31, 2014: $110.70

June 30, 2015: $78.42

Change: -29.16%

Western Digital has been expanding beyond its hard drive product lines with its cloud storage offerings for both consumer and commercial customers. In March, the company debuted its My Cloud network attached storage systems.

For its fiscal year ended July 3, WD reported revenue of $14.57 billion, down more than 3 percent from $15.13 billion in fiscal 2014. Net income for fiscal 2015 was $1.47 billion, down more than 9 percent from $1.62 billion in fiscal 2014.