The Best And Worst Technology Company Stocks In Q3 2015

Winners And Losers

The third quarter was a rough one for tech stock investors, as only five IT companies from our index of 40 vendors saw the price of their shares rise between July 1 and Sept. 30. Among the other 35 vendors, stock price declines ranged from a fraction of 1 percent to a whopping 58 percent.

With many companies reporting healthy sales and earnings gains in recent quarters, it's hard to tell what's driving the downward pressure on tech stocks. But then, it wasn't a good quarter for stocks overall: The Dow Jones was down 7.58 percent and the Nasdaq was down 7.35 percent.

Here's a look at who was up and who was down in the third quarter of 2015, starting with companies with the biggest gains in share price, based on stock closing prices on June 30 and Sept. 30.

Motorola Solutions

CEO: Greg Brown

June 30, 2015: $57.34

Sept. 30, 2015: $68.38

Change: +19.25%

Communications systems manufacturer Motorola Solutions was No. 1 in share price growth in the CRN index for the third quarter.

On Sept. 10, Motorola Solutions said it was repurchasing more than 30 million shares of common stock at $66.50 a share for a total of $2 billion under a "modified Dutch Auction" tender offer announced Aug. 7.

On Aug. 5, Motorola announced that Silver Lake, a private equity firm, would take a $1 billion stake in the company. At the same time, Motorola reported that sales in its second fiscal quarter, ended July 4, were down 2 percent year over year, to $1.37 billion. Net earnings were $142 million, down almost 83 percent from the same quarter one year earlier.

Amazon

CEO: Jeff Bezos

June 30, 2015: $434.09

Sept. 30, 2015: $511.89

Change: +17.92%

Revenue for Amazon's third quarter, ended Sept. 30, reached $25.36 billion, up more than 23 percent from $20.58 billion year over year. The company reported net income of $79 million, compared with a $437 million net loss one year before.

Amazon began breaking out financial performance numbers for Amazon Web Services earlier this year and in the third quarter, AWS recorded sales of $2.09 billion, up more than 78 percent from $1.17 billion one year earlier.

Alphabet (formerly Google)

CEO: Larry Page

June 30, 2015: $520.51

Sept. 30, 2015: $608.42

Change: +16.89%

In August, Google unveiled a new operating structure, creating a new parent company called Alphabet, of which Google is a part. The change didn't seem to hurt Google's/Alphabet's stock, as the company ranked No. 3 in this quarter's stock index with a nearly 17 percent share price increase.

For the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, Alphabet reported sales of $18.68 billion, up more than 12 percent from $16.62 billion in the same period one year earlier. Net income for the quarter increased 45 percent, to $3.98 billion from $2.74 billion one year before.

Western Digital

CEO: Steve Milligan

June 30, 2015: $78.42

Sept. 30, 2015: $79.44

Change: +1.3%

Western Digital suffered the biggest drop in share price among all the companies in our index in the first half of 2015. So moving up to be one of the biggest stock value gainers in the third quarter, even if only 1.3 percent, marks quite a turnaround.

On Oct. 1, WD announced a deal to acquire flash memory chipmaker SanDisk for $19 billion as part of WD's efforts to expand beyond magnetic storage disks. That announcement, however, was after the period covered in this share price analysis.

Microsoft

CEO: Satya Nadella

June 30, 2015: $44.15

Sept. 30, 2015: $44.26

Change: +0.25%

On July 29, Microsoft began shipping Windows 10, the latest release of the company's flagship product that's intended to overcome the shortcomings of its Windows 8 predecessor and work across all manner of PCs and mobile devices. On Oct. 22, in announcing the company's fiscal Q1 results, Microsoft said Windows 10 was running on 110 million devices.

For the first fiscal quarter, ended Sept. 30, revenue dropped 12 percent, to $20.38 billion, compared with $23.20 billion. Net income rose 2 percent year over year, to $4.62 billion from $4.54 billion one year earlier.

Check Point Software Technologies

CEO: Gil Shwed

June 30, 2015: $79.55

Sept. 30, 2015: $79.33

Change: -0.28%

Check Point is the first company in our index to record a decline in its stock price during the third quarter.

In early September, Check Point Software Technologies launched SandBlast, a new threat-detection and -prevention solution that will go head to head with Palo Alto Networks' Wildfire and other competing products.

For its third quarter, ended Sept. 30, Check Point reported revenue of $403.9 million, up 9 percent from $370.4 million in the same period one year earlier. Net income was $167.7 million, up 4 percent from $161 million one year earlier.

Salesforce.com

CEO: Marc Benioff

June 30, 2015: $69.63

Sept. 30, 2015: $69.43

Change: -0.29%

In September, Salesforce, at its massive Dreamforce 2015 conference, unveiled its IoT Cloud service, which collects data from connected devices and other sources and analyzes it to gain a better picture of a business' customers.

For the company's second fiscal quarter, ended July 31, Salesforce reported revenue of $1.63 billion, up 24 percent from $1.32 billion in the same period one year before. The company reported a loss of $852,000, compared with a loss of $61.1 million in the same period one year earlier.

Intel

CEO: Brian Krzanich

June 30, 2015: $30.42

Sept. 30, 2015: $30.14

Change: -0.92%

On Sept. 1, Intel unveiled the 6th Generation Intel Core line of processors, with enhanced performance and support for a broad range of devices, including compute sticks, 2-in-1s, all-in-one desktops and mobile workstations.

For the company's third quarter, ended Sept. 26, Intel reported sales of $14.47 billion, down slightly from $14.55 billion in the same period one year before. Net income dropped more than 6 percent, however, to $3.11 billion from $3.32 billion one year earlier.

Juniper Networks

CEO: Rami Rahim

June 30, 2015: $25.97

Sept. 30, 2015: $25.71

Change: -1%

In September, Juniper Networks unveiled Juniper Networks Unite, a new reference architecture that the company said would provide simplified and secure network infrastructure solutions to modernize enterprise campus and branch networks into cloud-enabled service platforms.

For its third quarter, ended Sept. 30, Juniper Networks reported sales of $1.25 billion, up 11 percent year over year from $1.13 billion. Net income soared almost 91 percent, to $197.7 million, compared with $103.6 million one year earlier.

Citrix Systems

CEO: Mark Templeton

June 30, 2015: $70.16

Sept. 30, 2015: $69.28

Change: -1.25%

Citrix has been under pressure from Elliott Management Group, a New York hedge fund company that acquired a 7.1 percent stake in Citrix, to cut its operating expenses, overhaul its channel strategy, improve its sales and marketing efforts, and jettison underperforming product lines. By the end of September, there were reports that Citrix was up for sale -- either as a whole or in parts.

On July 28, the company said president and CEO Mark Templeton would retire. Templeton, president of the company for 27 years and CEO for 14, will depart as soon as a successor is named.

Palo Alto Networks

CEO: Mark McLaughlin

June 30, 2015: $174.30

Sept. 30, 2015: $172.00

Change: -1.32%

For its fiscal fourth quarter, ended July 31, security software developer Palo Alto Networks reported revenue of $283.9 million, up 59 percent year over year from $178.2 million. The company's net loss for the quarter was just under $46 million, compared with the $32.1 million loss one year before.

For all of fiscal 2015, the company's sales grew 55 percent, to $928.1 million from $598.2 million, in fiscal 2014. The company's net loss narrowed to just under $165 million from $226.5 million in 2014.

Netgear

CEO: Patrick Lo

June 30, 2015: $30.02

Sept. 30, 2015: $29.17

Change: -2.83%

For its third quarter, ended Sept. 27, Netgear reported sales of $341.9 million, down more than 3 percent from $353.3 million in the same period one year earlier. Net income was likewise down, dropping more than 24 percent, to $15.1 million from $20 million one year ago.

F5 Networks

CEO: Manny Rivelo

June 30, 2015: $120.35

Sept. 30, 2015: $115.80

Change: -3.78%

On July 1, Manny Rivelo, F5 Networks' executive vice president of strategic solutions, took over as the company's CEO. He replaced longtime CEO John McAdam, who retired and became chairman of the company's board.

For its fourth fiscal quarter, ended Sept. 30, F5 Networks reported sales of $501.3 million, up nearly 8 percent from $465.3 million in last year's fourth quarter. Net income was $97 million, up more than 3 percent year over year from $94 million one year before.

Cisco

CEO: Chuck Robbins

June 30, 2015: $27.46

Sept. 30, 2015: $26.25

Change: -4.41%

Seventeen-year Cisco veteran Chuck Robbins took over as the company's CEO, replacing longtime CEO John Chambers, who relinquished the job July 26. In the weeks leading up to that, Cisco underwent a number of executive changes as Robbins put his own management team in place.

For its fourth quarter, ended July 25, Cisco reported revenue of $12.84 billion, up nearly 4 percent from $12.36 billion in the same period one year earlier. Net income in the fourth quarter was $2.32 billion, up more than 3 percent from $2.25 billion one year earlier.

Red Hat

CEO: James Whitehurst

June 30, 2015: $75.93

Sept. 30, 2015: $71.88

Change: -5.33%

For its fiscal second quarter, ended Aug. 31, Red Hat reported revenue of $504.1 million, up 13 percent from $445.9 million in the same period one year before. Net income was up nearly 10 percent year over year, to $51.4 million in the second quarter from $46.8 million a year before.

On July 27, Red Hat began shipping Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7, the latest release of the company's flagship product. That was followed up on Aug. 7 when the company shipped Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 7.

Seagate Technology

CEO: Stephen Luczo

June 30, 2015: $47.50

Sept. 30, 2015: $44.80

Change: -5.68%

In August, Seagate said it had a deal to acquire Dot Hill Systems, a Longmont, Colo.-based developer of external storage array-based systems and software products, for about $694 million. Seagate said it would leverage Dot Hill's storage technology intellectual property portfolio and software to accelerate innovation and provide incremental value to the two companies' combined OEM customer base.

NetApp

CEO: George Kurian

June 30, 2015: $31.56

Sept. 30, 2015: $29.60

Change: -6.21%

The first half of the year was seriously turbulent for NetApp, culminating with the ousting of longtime CEO Tom Georgens in June and the appointment of George Kurian to replace him.

In August, the company reported surprisingly strong fiscal 2016 Q1 earnings, fueled by growing sales of the company's higher-end storage systems. That includes successfully transitioning some customers to NetApp's Clustered Data OnTap system.

CA Technologies

CEO: Michael Gregoire

June 30, 2015: $29.29

Sept. 30, 2015: $27.30

Change: -6.79%

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 Aug. 17, the company completed its acquisition of privately held Xceedium, a provider of privileged identity management software for on-premise, cloud and hybrid IT environments.

SAP

CEO: Bill McDermott

June 30, 2015: $70.23

Sept. 30, 2015: $64.79

Change: -7.75%

SAP has been transforming itself from its core business of selling on-premise applications to providing cloud-based applications and services.

For the company's third quarter, ended Sept. 30, SAP reported 17 percent sales growth, to $5.65 billion, and 2 percent growth in after-tax profit, to $1.01 billion. That included healthy sales growth for the company's cloud applications and services and for the new S/4HANA application platform.

VMware

CEO: Pat Gelsinger

June 30, 2015: $85.74

Sept. 30, 2015: $78.79

Change: -8.11%

For the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, VMware reported revenue of $1.67 billion, up about 10 percent from $1.52 billion in the same quarter one year earlier. Net income was up almost 32 percent, to $256 million from $194 million one year before.

EMC owns a majority of VMware's stock and the price of VMware shares took a beating in the week after the news in early October that Dell would acquire EMC. This ranking is based on share prices at the close of trading Sept. 30 and so the impact of the Dell-EMC deal is not a factor here.

AT&T

CEO: Randall Stephenson

June 30, 2015: $35.52

Sept. 30, 2015: $32.58

Change: -8.28%

AT&T completed its $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV on July 24, making it the largest pay-TV provider in the U.S., according to the company.

For its third quarter, ended Sept. 30, AT&T reported revenue of $39.09 billion, up more than 18 percent from $32.96 billion in the same quarter one year earlier. Net income was down more than 4 percent, however, to $2.99 billion from $3.13 billion one year before.

EMC

CEO: Joe Tucci

June 30, 2015: $26.39

Sept. 30, 2015: $24.16

Change: -8.45%

Storage technology giant EMC recorded revenue of $6.08 billion for its third quarter, ended Sept. 30, up less than 1 percent from the third quarter of 2014. Net income was down 18 percent, to $480 million, compared with earnings of $587 million one year before.

In October, EMC agreed to be acquired by IT systems vendor Dell in a deal valued at $67 billion -- the largest acquisition in the history of the IT industry. EMC shareholders are set to receive $33.15 per share in cash and tracking stock. The deal occurred after the period covered by this analysis and is not factored into EMC's stock price ranking.

Xerox

CEO: Ursula Burns

June 30, 2015: $10.64

Sept. 30, 2015: $9.73

Change: -8.55%

On Aug. 24, Xerox announced an agreement to acquire RSA Medical, a provider of health assessment and risk management technology for health and life insurance customers. The acquisition expands Xerox's portfolio of health-care service offerings and will be integrated with the company's commercial health-care services business. On Sept. 1, Xerox acquired InVentiv Patient Access Solutions from Inventiv Health, expanding Xerox's portfolio of pharmacy solutions.

For its third quarter, ended Sept. 30, Xerox reported $4.33 billion in revenue, down 10 percent from $4.80 in the same period one year earlier. The company reported a $34 million net loss compared with net income of $266 million one year before. The company's board of directors also announced a review of the company's business portfolio and capital allocation options with the goal of enhancing shareholder value.

NetSuite

CEO: Zach Nelson

June 30, 2015: $91.75

Sept. 30, 2015: $83.90

Change: -8.55%

While NetSuite has reported consistent quarterly sales growth in the range of 33 percent to 35 percent, the company has yet to report a profit and its stock has been under pressure for much of this year.

For the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, NetSuite reported sales of $192.8 million, up 34 percent from $143.7 million in last year's third quarter. The company's net loss for the quarter was $37.3 million, compared with the $29.3 million loss in the same quarter one year ago.

Oracle

CEOs: Mark Hurd and Safra Catz

June 30, 2015: $40.30

Sept. 30, 2015: $36.12

Change: -10.37%

On Aug. 20, Oracle announced a deal to acquire Maxymiser, a provider of cloud-based software used by marketers to test, target and personalize content on Web pages and in mobile applications.

For its first fiscal quarter, ended Aug. 31, Oracle reported that despite increased sales of cloud computing products, overall revenue declined 2 percent, to $8.45 billion from $8.6 billion one year earlier. Net income dropped 20 percent, to $1.75 billion from $2.18 billion on year before.

IBM

CEO: Virginia Rometty

June 30, 2015: $162.66

Sept. 30, 2015: $144.97

Change: -10.88%

In August IBM acquired Merge Healthcare, a Chicago-based global medical imaging pioneer that brings medical image gathering and dissemination capabilities to the company's Watson Health Cloud. Later in August the company launched a private-cloud-as-a-service based on its earlier acquisition of Blue Box.

Investors have been concerned about IBM's sales, which have been steadily declining for several years. For its third quarter ended Sept. 30 IBM reported revenue of $19.28 billion, down almost 14 percent from $22.40 billion in the same period one year ago. But the company reported healthy earnings of $2.95 billion compared to just $18 million one year earlier.

Apple

CEO: Tim Cook

June 30, 2015: $125.43

Sept. 30, 2015: $110.30

Change: -12.06%

On Sept. 19, Apple began selling its long-awaited iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the latest generation of the vendor's flagship mobile phone. Within three days, the company sold more than 10 million of the devices.

For its fourth fiscal quarter, ended Sept. 26, Apple reported sales of $51.50 billion, up more than 22 percent year over year from $42.12 billion. Net income for the quarter was $11.1 billion, up more than 31 percent from $8.47 billion one year earlier.

Brocade Communications Systems

CEO: Lloyd Carney

June 30, 2015: $11.88

Sept. 30, 2015: $10.38

Change: -12.63%

On Sept. 30, Brocade's directors approved a plan to increase the vendor's stock repurchase program by $700 million, bringing the total funding authorized for repurchase to $1 billion.

On Aug. 20, Brocade reported that in its third fiscal quarter, ended Aug. 1, revenue was $552 million, up 1 percent from $547 million in the same period one year before. Net income for the quarter was $92 million, up nearly 6 percent from $87 million one year earlier.

Hewlett-Packard

CEO: Meg Whitman

June 30, 2015: $30.01

Sept. 30, 2015: $25.61

Change: -14.66%

Industry giant Hewlett-Packard has spent the first three quarters of 2015 preparing to execute its planned split into two Fortune 50 companies: a $53 billion enterprise computing business known as Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a $55 billion PC and printing business called HP Inc. The split took place Nov. 1, after the time period covered by this analysis.

On Aug. 20, HP reported that for its third fiscal quarter, ended July 31, sales declined 8 percent, to $25.3 billion, from $27.6 billion in the third quarter last year.

Symantec

CEO: Michael Brown

June 30, 2015: $23.25

Sept. 30, 2015: $19.47

Change: -16.26%

Throughout 2015, Symantec has been developing plans to split into two companies, one focused on security technology and the other on data management. On Aug. 11, Symantec announced a deal to sell the Veritas data storage business to the Carlyle Group private equity firm for $8 billion. The deal is expected to close and the two companies go their separate ways by Jan. 1, 2016.

CommVault Systems

CEO: N. Robert Hammer

June 30, 2015: $42.41

Sept. 30, 2015: $33.96

Change: -19.92%

For its second fiscal quarter, ended Sept. 30, Commvault reported revenue of $140.7 million, down nearly 7 percent from $151.1 million in the same period one year earlier. The company reported a net loss of $9.2 million compared with earnings of $6.5 million in the same quarter one year before.

BlackBerry

CEO: John Chen

June 30, 2015: $8.18

Sept. 30, 2015: $6.13

Change: -25.06%

On Sept. 4, BlackBerry announced a deal to acquire Good Technology, a developer of mobile device management and security technology, for $425 million. The move is expected to expand BlackBerry's portfolio of enterprise mobility management technology and services.

For its fiscal second quarter, ended Aug. 29, BlackBerry reported sales of $490 million, down more than 46 percent from $916 million in last year's second quarter. Net income was $51 million, however, compared to the $207 million loss one year before.

Panasonic

CEO (North America): Joe Taylor

June 30, 2015: $13.72

Sept. 30, 2015: $10.11

Change: -26.31%

For its fiscal second quarter, ended Sept. 20, Panasonic reported revenue of 1.90 trillion yen (about $15.4 billion), up more than 1 percent from $1.87 trillion yen (about $15.2 billion). Net income was 51.8 billion yen (about $420.6 million), up about 20 percent from 43.0 billion yen (about $349.2 million).

QLogic

CEO: Jean Hu

June 30, 2015: $14.19

Sept. 30, 2015: $10.25

Change: -27.77%

On Aug. 21, Prasad Rampalli resigned as president and CEO to pursue other opportunities. Jean Hu, CFO and senior vice president since 2011, was named acting CEO. She is also continuing to fulfill her CFO duties.

For the company's second fiscal second quarter, ended Sept. 27, QLogic reported sales of $103.4 million, down 19 percent from $127.5 million in the same quarter last year. Net income was $2.2 million, down 80 percent from $11 million one year before.

Advanced Micro Devices

CEO: Lisa Su

June 30, 2015: $2.40

Sept. 30, 2015: $1.72

Change: -28.33%

In July, AMD unveiled the A8-7670K microprocessor, a new addition to its A-Series line of desktop processors. The processor supports mainstream workloads and online gaming, and is optimized for Windows 10.

For the third quarter, ended Sept. 26, AMD reported revenue of $1.06 billion, down nearly 26 percent year over year from $1.43 billion. The company reported a $197 million loss for the quarter, an improvement over the $558 million loss in the same quarter one year before.

Tableau Software

CEO: Christian Chabot

June 30, 2015: $115.30

Sept. 30, 2015: $79.78

Change: -30.81%

Data analysis software developer Tableau has been riding the "big data" wave since going public in May 2013. But its stock returned to earth in the third quarter with a greater-than-30 percent drop in value.

That's not due to any problem with the company's growth. For the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, revenue surged more than 63 percent, to $170.8 million from $104.5 million one year earlier. But that growth came at the price of profitability, with the company's loss nearly tripling, to $13.4 million from $4.6 million one year earlier.

Lexmark International

CEO: Paul Rooke

June 30, 2015: $44.20

Sept. 30, 2015: $28.98

Change: -34.43%

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

For the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, Lexmark reported sales of $851.1 million, down 7 percent year over year from $918.1 million. The company reported a net loss of $15.2 million compared with earnings of $34.7 million one year earlier.

At the time of the quarterly earnings announcement Oct. 27, Lexmark also said it was conducting a review of "strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value." That announcement was after the time period covered by this stock price analysis.

FireEye

CEO: David DeWalt

June 30, 2015: $48.91

Sept. 30, 2015: $31.82

Change: -34.94%

Cybersecurity startup FireEye topped this list several times with stratospheric stock price gains since going public in September 2013. But more recently the stock price has been returning to earth, and in the third quarter, it was one of the biggest losers in our index.

For the company's third quarter, ended Sept. 30, FireEye reported revenue of $165.6 million, up 45 percent year over year from $114.2 million. But the company's net loss widened, to $135.5 million from $120.0 million

On Sept. 8, the company appointed industry veteran Michael Berry senior vice president and CFO.

Lenovo Group

CEO: Yang Yuanqing

June 30, 2015: $27.74

Sept. 30, 2015: $16.82

Change: -39.37%

With its strong position in the PC market and growing presence in servers, one would think Lenovo would be enjoying gains in its stock price. But its stock price was down nearly 40 percent in the third quarter, the next-to-worst performer in our analysis.

In August, the company said it would take a $900 million write-down for restructuring and smartphone inventory clearing costs in the second quarter, ended in September. The slowing economy in China may also be spooking investors.

Quantum

CEO: Jon Gacek

June 30, 2015: $1.68

Sept. 30, 2015: $0.70

Change: -58.33%

While a decline of $0.98 wouldn't be much for some stocks, it was more than half the value of the stock of data archiving and protection technology developer Quantum, putting the company at the bottom of our index for the third quarter.

For its fiscal second quarter, Quantum reported revenue of $117.0 million, down more than 13 percent year over year from $135.1 million. The company reported a loss of $11.2 million, compared with net income of $1.2 million on year before.