The Best And The Worst Tech Stocks Of 2021

Here is a look at the 10 technology company stocks that recorded the biggest gains and price declines in 2021. Take a look to see how did the shares of leading IT companies like Fortinet, AMD, VMware and Netgear performed during the year.

Tech Stocks Show Steady Growth Amid A Turbulent Year

See the latest entry: The Best and Worst Tech Stocks of 2022 (So Far)

While 2021 was a turbulent year with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, stock markets were generally on a steady rise throughout the year—and that included the share prices of many companies in the IT industry.

Of the 44 tech company stocks on our watch list, 31 recorded gains in their stock price in 2021, many by significant double-digit percentages. Only 13 companies recorded declines in their stock price in the first half of 2021, the majority also by double-digit percentages.

The Dow Jones closed at 36,338.30 on Dec. 31, 2021, up 18.65 percent from its 30,627.47 opening on Jan. 4, 2021 (the first day of trading). The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at 15,644.97 on Dec. 31, up 20.73 percent from its 12,958.52 opening on Jan. 4.

Here’s a look at the biggest stock price winners and losers in 2021. We start with the 10 biggest winners, counting down to the IT vendor with the biggest stock price gain during the period. Then we list the 10 companies whose stock price declined the most, concluding with the IT vendor with the biggest loss. The rankings are based on the opening share prices on Jan. 4, 2021, and the stock closing prices on Dec. 31, 2021.

Gainers No. 10: Microsoft

Chairman, CEO: Satya Nadella

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $222.53

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $336.32

Change: +51.13%

Microsoft remained on a roll in 2021 with surging sales of products like Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Teams. The company also kept up a steady stream of new product introductions through the year including Teams Essentials for small businesses, new Surface devices and the Windows 365 virtual desktop service.

For all of fiscal 2021 ended June 30, 2021, Microsoft reported revenue of $168.09 billion, up 17.5 percent from $143.02 billion in fiscal 2020. Net income for the fiscal year was $61.27 billion, up more than 38 percent from $44.28 billion one year earlier.

In the company’s fiscal 2022 first quarter ended Sept. 30, 2021, revenue reached $45.32 billion, up 22 percent from $37.15 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. Net income reached $20.51 billion, up nearly 48 percent from $13.89 billion one year before. During the quarter Microsoft surpassed $20 billion in quarterly cloud sales.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Microsoft’s market value stood at $2.53 trillion.

Gainers No. 9: HP Inc.

CEO: Enrique Lores

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $24.70

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $37.67

Change: +52.51%

HP Inc. enjoyed surging demand for its PC products in 2021, but the company had to manage a significant backlog of orders because of industry shortages of semiconductors and other components. In late November CEO Enrique Lores said the company expected to make progress in coming months on reducing its roughly $10 billion PC order backlog.

In October HP disclosed that the company’s Instant Ink subscription service had become a $500 million business with 30 percent annual growth.

For all of fiscal 2021 ended Oct. 31, 2021, HP reported sales of $63.49 billion, up 12 percent from $56.64 billion in fiscal 2020. Net income for the year was $6.50 billion, up nearly 129 percent from $2.84 billion one year earlier.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, HP’s market value stood at $40.79 billion.

Gainers No. 8: McAfee

President, CEO: Peter Leav

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $16.82

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $25.79

Change: +53.33%

Consumer security software developer McAfee disclosed a deal on Nov. 18 to be purchased for $14 billion by a group of private equity and investment firms, including Advent International and Permira Advisers. The investor group said it will provide McAfee with financial and operational resources to enhance its consumer security software.

The acquisition is expected to be completed sometime in the second half of 2022. The acquisition will make McAfee, which went public in 2020, a privately held company once again.

That deal followed the sale of McAfee’s enterprise security business to private equity firm Symphony Technology Group in July for $4 billion. (STG is combining those products with the FireEye products organization it bought in October for $1.2 billion.)

For the first nine months ended Sept. 25 of fiscal 2021, McAfee reported revenue of $1.40 billion, up nearly 24 percent from $1.13 billion in the same period in 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $808 million (including $2.47 billion in income from discontinued operations).

As of Dec. 31, 2021, McAfee’s market value stood at $4.72 billion.

Gainers No. 7: AMD

President, CEO: Lisa Su

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $92.11

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $143.9

Change: +56.23%

Chipmaker AMD continued its technology momentum in 2021, launching new EPYC CPUs and Instinct GPUs in October that the company said outperform competing Intel and Nvidia products. AMD also previewed next-generation Genoa EPYC server CPUs with up to 96 cores set to debut in 2022 and up to 128 cores in 2023.

At year’s end AMD said it expected to complete its $35 billion acquisition of programmable chip manufacturer Xilinx, first announced in late 2020, in the first quarter of 2022.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 25 of 2021, AMD reported revenue of $11.61 billion, up 78 percent from $6.52 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Sales were fueled by significant growth for commercial laptop chips and a more than doubling of its data center business. Net income for the nine months was $2.19 billion, more than triple the $709 million one year before.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, AMD’s market value stood at $173.78 billion.

Gainers No. 6: Palo Alto Networks

Chairman, CEO: Nikesh Arora

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $355.38

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $556.76

Change: +56.67%

In August Palo Alto Networks hired Barracuda Networks CEO B.J. Jenkins to be the company’s new president. Then-president Amit Singh moved into a new role as chief business officer.

In August Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora said that Palo Alto Networks had no plans to pursue additional large acquisitions after spending $3.46 billion on a dozen significant acquisitions since 2018. Those purchases included the February 2021 acquisition of cloud security startup Bridgecrew for $156 million.

For all of fiscal 2021 ended July 31, Palo Alto Networks reported revenue of $4.26 billion, up nearly 25 percent from $3.41 billion in fiscal 2020. The company reported a loss of $498.9 million for the fiscal year compared with a loss of $267.0 million one year before.

For its fiscal 2022 first quarter ended Oct. 31, 2021, the company reported revenue of $1.25 billion, up 32 percent from $946.0 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. The quarterly loss widened to $103.6 million from $92.2 million one year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Palo Alto Networks’ market value stood at $54.93 billion.

Gainers No. 5: Juniper Networks

CEO: Rami Rahim

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $22.50

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $35.71

Change: +58.71%

Juniper Networks began the year by completing its acquisition of Apstra, a developer of intent-based networking and automated closed-loop assurance technology, on Jan. 27. The acquisition added to Juniper’s portfolio of data center network automation capabilities. Juniper did not disclose the acquisition price but had previously said the acquisition was expected to be “approximately breakeven to non-GAAP earnings for the full year 2021.”

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Juniper reported revenue of $3.44 billion, up nearly 7 percent from $3.22 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the period was $119.8 million, down 47 percent from $227.0 million one year earlier.

Juniper will report its fiscal 2021 fourth-quarter and full-year results on Jan. 27.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Juniper Networks’ market value stood at $11.61 billion.

Gainers No. 4: Alphabet

CEO: Sundar Pichai

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $1,757.54

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $2,893.59

Change: +64.64%

Alphabet, the parent company of internet giant Google, began 2021 by closing its $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness tracker Fitbit on Jan. 14.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Alphabet reported revenue of $182.31 billion, up 45 percent from $125.63 billion in the same period of 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $55.39 billion, more than double the $25.04 billion one year before.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Alphabet’s market value stood at $1.92 trillion.

Gainers No. 3: Seagate Technology

CEO: Dave Mosley

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $62.29

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $112.98

Change: +81.38%

For its fiscal 2021 ended July 2, storage technology developer Seagate reported revenue of $10.68 billion, up 1.6 percent from $10.51 billion in fiscal 2020. Net income for the fiscal year was $1.31 billion, up nearly 31 percent from $1.00 billion one year earlier.

For the first quarter ended Oct. 1, 2021, of fiscal 2022, Seagate reported revenue of $3.12 billion, up nearly 35 percent from $2.31 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. Net income for the quarter was $526 million, up 136 percent from $223 million one year before.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Seagate’s market value stood at $25.15 billion.

Gainers No. 2: Extreme Networks

President, CEO: Ed Meyercord

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $6.96

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $15.70

Change: +125.57%

In September Extreme Networks completed its $73 million acquisition of Ipanema, the cloud-native, enterprise SD-WAN division of Infovista. The acquisition expanded the company’s ExtremeCloud portfolio with cloud-managed SD-WAN and security software.

For all of fiscal 2021 ended June 30, Extreme Networks reported revenue of $1.01 billion, up 6.5 percent from $948.0 million in fiscal 2020. Net income for the year was $1.9 million compared with a $126.8 million loss one year ago.

For the first quarter ended Sept. 30, 2021, of fiscal 2022, Extreme Networks reported revenue of $267.7 million, up 13.5 percent from $235.8 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Extreme Networks’ market value stood at $2.04 billion.

Gainers No. 1: Fortinet

Founder, Chairman, CEO: Ken Xie

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $149.57

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $359.40

Change: +140.29%

Cybersecurity technology vendor Fortinet tops the list of stock price winners for 2021 after the price of its shares increased more than 140 percent during the year. In December the company was added to the Nasdaq-100 Index.

In March Fortinet completed its acquisition of cloud and network security startup ShieldX. That followed several acquisitions in 2020 including Panopta and Opaq.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Fortinet reported revenue of $2.39 billion, up nearly 29 percent from $1.85 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the nine months reached $407.8 million, up more than 19 percent from $341.8 million one year before.

Fortinet will announce its 2021 fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on Feb. 3.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Fortinet’s market value stood at $58.76 billion.

Decliners No. 10: Xerox

Vice Chairman, CEO: John Visentin

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $23.30

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $22.64

Change: -2.83%

After surviving several turbulent years that included management changes, a battle for control of the company’s board of directors and an aborted effort to buy rival HP Inc., printer and copier manufacturer Xerox had a relatively uneventful 2021.

In July Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi put forward the idea that HP, given the company’s market capitalization growth and Xerox’s smaller market value, might want to make an acquisition bid for Xerox.

In October Xerox acquired Colchester, Vt.-based consulting firm Competitive Computing in a move to expand its IT security and cost optimization solutions in the SMB space.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Xerox reported revenue of $5.26 billion, up 3.3 percent from $5.09 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $220 million, almost double the $115 million in net income one year earlier.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Xerox’s market value stood at $4.04 billion.

Decliners No. 9: Verizon Communications

Chairman, CEO: Hans Vestberg

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $58.96

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $51.96

Change: -11.87%

Verizon continued to roll out 5G business wireless services in 2021, including in such cities as Albuquerque, N.M., Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tenn., as part of the carrier’s aggressive plans to grow its 5G footprint.

In May Verizon sold its struggling media business unit, including its AOL and Yahoo assets, to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Verizon reported total operating revenue of $99.55 billion, up 6.4 percent from $93.60 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $17.88 billion, up 13.2 percent from $13.63 billion one year before.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Verizon’s market value stood at $218.12 billion.

Decliners No. 8: Quantum

Chairman, President, CEO: Jamie Lerner

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $6.27

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $5.52

Change: -11.96%

Data storage and management technology company Quantum unveiled a deal in August to acquire the assets of EnCloudEn, an early stage developer of hyperconverged infrastructure software. That followed the earlier acquisition of the surveillance business assets of Pivot3, a provider of hyperconverged infrastructure for video surveillance workloads.

For the first six months ended Sept. 30 of fiscal 2022, Quantum reported revenue of $182.3 million, up 14.5 percent from $159.1 million in the first six months of fiscal 2021. The company reported a $13.4 million loss for the six-month period compared with a $15.3 million loss one year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Quantum’s market value stood at $328.0 million.

Decliners No. 7: Check Point Software Technologies

Founder, CEO: Gil Shwed

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $133.10

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $116.56

Change: -12.43%

Cybersecurity platform developer Check Point Software Technologies struck a deal in August to buy Avanan, a fast-growing provider of email and collaboration protection software, for a reported $250 million to $300 million.

Also in August, Check Point announced a $2 billion expansion of its on-going share repurchase program with the company’s board authorizing the repurchase of shares valued up to $325 million each quarter.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Check Point reported revenue of $1.57 billion, up 4.4 percent from $1.50 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $555.9 million, down 3.5 percent from $575.8 million one year before.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Check Point’s market value stood at $15.48 billion.

Decliners No. 6: AT&T

CEO: John Stankey

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $29.39

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $24.60

Change: -16.30%

In May AT&T struck a deal to merge its WarnerMedia content unit with Discovery in a deal that will essentially undo the carrier’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner just three years earlier. The AT&T-Discovery deal has a potential value of $43 billion for AT&T in cash, debt and WarnerMedia’s retention of certain debt. AT&T stockholders will receive stock representing 71 percent of the new company. The deal requires regulatory approval and is expected to be completed sometime around the middle of 2022.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, AT&T reported operating revenue of $127.91 billion, up 1.5 percent from $126.07 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $14.88 billion, up nearly 74 percent from $8.57 billion one year earlier.

AT&T will release its 2021 fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on Jan. 26.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, AT&T’s market value stood at $175.67 billion.

Decliners No. 5: VMware

CEO: Raghu Raghuram

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $139.44

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $115.88

Change: -16.90%

On Nov. 1 Dell Technologies sold the 81 percent stake it owned in VMware, making the virtualization technology developer a fully independent company for the first time since it was acquired by EMC in 2004.

VMware began 2021 with the announcement in January that CEO Pat Gelsinger was leaving to become CEO of chipmaker Intel. In May VMware named its longtime technologist and cloud leader Raghu Raghuram as the company’s new CEO.

For the first nine months ended Oct. 29, 2021, of fiscal 2022, VMware reported revenue of $9.32 billion, up 10 percent from $8.47 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2021. Net income for the nine-month period was $1.23 billion, down 2.6 percent from $1.27 billion one year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, VMware’s market value stood at $48.63 billion.

Decliners No. 4: Mandiant

CEO: Kevin Mandia

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $22.76

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $17.54

Change: -22.93%

Cybersecurity service provider Mandiant is the publicly traded company previously known as FireEye. Following the $1.2 billion acquisition of FireEye by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group in October, STG is combining the FireEye products organization with the McAfee Enterprise security business STG acquired in July.

Mandiant, meanwhile, retains such assets as FireEye’s threat intelligence and incident response services business. The sequence of transactions essentially undoes FireEye’s $1 billion purchase of Mandiant in December 2013 with CEO Kevin Mandia once again leading the company.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Mandiant reported revenue of $350.6 million, up 21 percent from $289.4 million in the first nine months of 2020. The company reported a loss of $183.6 million for the nine-month period compared with a $168.7 million loss one year before.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Mandiant’s market value stood at $4.21 billion.

Decliners No. 3: Citrix Systems

Interim CEO: Bob Calderoni

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $130.75

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $94.59

Change: -27.66%

Citrix Systems recorded the third largest decline among the stocks on the CRN watch list in 2021. That, despite a spike in the company’s share price at year’s end following reports that Citrix could be taken private by hedge fund company Elliott Management and private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. In early December Citrix shares hovered around $79 to $80 per share, which would have put the company’s stock price decline for the year around 39 percent.

On Oct. 7 Citrix said that President and CEO David Henshall had stepped down from his position and as a member of the company’s board of directors. The company did not provide a reason for Henshall’s departure. Board Chairman Bob Calderoni was named interim president and CEO while the company searches for a new CEO.

Citrix has embarked on a transition to the cloud, including shifting its own business operations to a recurring revenue model and selling its software on a subscription basis.

For the first nine months ended Sept. 30 of 2021, Citrix reported revenue of $2.37 billion, down 2.5 percent from $2.43 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $204.6 million, down nearly 48 percent from $392.4 million one year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Citrix’s market value stood at $11.80 billion.

Decliners No. 2: Netgear

Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO: Patrick Lo

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $40.89

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $29.21

Change: -28.56%

For the first nine months ended Oct. 3 of 2021, Netgear reported revenue of $916.9 million, up more than 3 percent from $888.1 million in the first nine months of 2020. Net income for the nine-month period was $50.4 million, up 84 percent from $27.3 million one year earlier.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Netgear‘s market value stood at $854.8 million.

Decliners No. 1: Splunk

Interim CEO: Graham Smith

Jan. 4, 2021, Opening: $170.86

Dec. 31, 2021, Close: $115.72

Change: -32.27%

Splunk, a developer of machine data management software, recorded the biggest stock price decline in 2021 among the IT vendors on the CRN watch list.

Splunk experienced a slowdown in its deal closing rate through much of fiscal 2021 ended Jan. 31, 2021, which the company attributed to economic uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic and customers’ financial difficulties. That led to several quarters of revenue declines that fiscal year.

In June Splunk announced a $1 billion investment from private equity company Silver Lake, which purchased $1 billion in aggregate principal amount of Splunk convertible senior notes.

On Nov. 15 President and CEO Doug Merritt resigned from the company and board Chairman Graham Smith was named interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement. The company did not provide a reason for Merritt’s departure.

For the first nine months ended Oct. 31, 2021, of fiscal 2022, Splunk reported revenue of $1.77 billion, up more than 19 percent from $1.48 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2021. The company’s loss for the nine-month period was just under $1.2 billion compared with $768.4 million one year earlier.

As of Dec. 31, 2021, Splunk’s market value stood at $18.38 billion.