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Activision Blizzard is one of a handful of tech stocks down less than 15% from their latest peak.
Rich Polk/Getty Images for Activision
It’s been a brutal year for stocks in general, but technology stocks have been hit especially hard since the Nasdaq Composite peaked last November.
The S&P 500 index on Thursday closed down 15.5% from where it was trading 12 months ago and nearly 22% down from its record high set on Jan. 3. The Nasdaq Composite is down 26% from a year ago and 31% from its record close set on Nov. 19, 2021.
It has been even worse for IT and communication services stocks in the S&P 500. The S&P 500 Communication Services sector was recently down 39% from its 52-week closing high, while the S&P 500 Information Technology sector was down 29% from its latest peak.
The last of those firms to hit a fresh 52-week high was
Enphase Energy
(ENPH) on Sept. 8, preceded by
T-Mobile US
(TMUS) on Aug. 26. Neither stock has been immune amid the latest selloff, though.
Barron’s screened for the companies in the S&P 500’s two tech-focused sectors to get a sense of which stocks have held up best amid the selloff, and why. We narrowed the list to the firms in those sectors that are off 15% or less from their 52-week high. We conducted the screen after Wednesday’s close, so the results don’t reflect Thursday and Friday’s steep declines, which pushed the S&P 500 down 2.5%.
Name / Ticker52 Week High 9/21 Closing Price% changeEnphase Energy / ENPH$324.84$304.56-6.24%Citrix Systems / CTXS111.88103.75-7.27%T-Mobile US / TMUS148.04136.77-7.61%Fiserv / FISV111.8499.59-10.95%ON Semiconductor / ON76.7868.34-10.99%Jack Henry & Associates / JKHY212.62188.26-11.46%Automatic Data Processing / ADP261.59230.42-11.92%Motorola Solutions / MSI273.65237.86-13.08%Activision Blizzard / ATVI86.9075.32-13.33%Broadridge Financial Solutions / BR185.40159.96-13.72%International Business Machines / IBM146.00124.93-14.43%Cadence Design Systems / CDNS194.97166.04-14.84%
Source: FactSet
Enphase Energy
’s
relative success—it’s down only 6.2% from its highest levels hit this year—makes sense given the company’s focus on technology for the solar market. The stock has benefited since the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes solar incentives, became law in August. The stock peaked on Sept. 8, just days after it announced a global partnership with Munich-based renewable-energy company
BayWa
.
In a turbulent market, it helps to have a deal on the table.
Citrix Systems
(CTXS) is off only 7.3% from its 52-week peak and is trading near the $104 a share Elliott Management’s private-equity arm and Vista Equity Partners have agreed to pay. Citrix said this summer it expects the deal to close in the third quarter of 2022. Likewise,
Activision Blizzard
(ATVI) is ninth in the screen, off 13% from its one-year high. The videogame company’s acquisition by
Microsoft
(MSF) for $95 a share is facing regulatory scrutiny, though Barron’s believes concerns from traders—as reflected by the stock’s discount to the deal price—are overblown.
T-Mobile US takes the third spot by trading just 7.6% below its one-year high. The company is a recent Barron’s stock pick due to its lead over
Verizon Communications
(VZ) in the 5G era and its plans to return capital to shareholders via significant stock repurchases. Fellow telecom firm
Motorola Solutions
(MSI) ranked eighth in the screen with a 13% decline from its one-year high.
Fiserv
(FISV), which has been a target of activist investor ValueAct Capital. It’s off 11% from a recent high.
The fifth-placed stock in the screen is
ON Semiconductor
(ON), which only joined the S&P 500 in June. Shares are off roughly 11% from its one-year high. It’s also a standout among semiconductor stocks: the
iShares Semiconductor exchange-traded fund
(SOXX) was recently off 39% from its 52-week highs.
Payments processing firm
Jack Henry & Associates
is sixth, trading 11.5% off its 52-week high of $212.62. It’s followed by HR software firm
Automatic Data Processing
(ADP).
Broadridge Financial Solutions
(BR) has been steady, ranking 10th in the screen with a 13.7% decline from its one-year high. Its strong recurring-revenue businesses have helped it stay steady.
International Business Machines
(IBM) is 11th with a 14% decline from its recent high. Big blue stock dropped in July after its soft outlook overshadowed better-than-expected results.
Cadence Design Systems
(CDNS), which designs and develops integrated circuits, rounds out the list with a 14.8% drop from its high.
These stocks aren’t exactly winners this year, but few are in a market like this. In case you’re wondering,
Apple
(AAPL), which has held up better than its Big Tech peers, just missed the 15% threshold for our screen. As of Wednesday’s close, the iPhone-maker was down 16% from its 52-week high of $182.94.
Write to Connor Smith at connor.smith@barrons.com
Source by www.barrons.com