The Best (And Worst) Q3 Vendor Tech Stocks

The Good, The Bad, The Third Quarter On Wall St.

The third quarter is over, perhaps mercifully so for some technology companies and their investors. After all the turmoil on Wall Street in August, how did things settle out? Of 35 companies tracked by CRN, more than half saw their stock price fall by more than 20 percent.

Here's a look at the best -- and worst -- performing tech stocks during the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Juniper Networks

Sept. 30, 2011: $17.26
June 30, 2011: $31.50
Change: -45.2%

Juniper shares fell $6.51 to $24.66 on July 27, a day after the company posted a profit decline on mixed product sales, and then continued a decline for the rest of the quarter. Its Sept. 30 close price of $17.26 was its lowest since April 2009.

Quantum

Sept. 30, 2011: $1.81
June 30, 2011: $3.30
Change: -45.2%

Quantum shares lost nearly 43 percent of their value during the late July to early August slide that impacted most companies. But unlike many other tech vendors, Quantum fared even worse overall in the quarter.

Netgear

Sept. 30, 2011: $25.89
June 30, 2011: $43.72
Change: -40.8%

Netgear shares reached their third-quarter nadir on Sept. 9 and even closed as high as $28.10 on Sept. 27 but stumbled again before the end of the quarter. In August, the company tried to woo investors back by debuting a new 10-gigabit switch for the midmarket.

Hewlett-Packard

Sept. 30, 2011: $22.45
June 30, 2011: $36.40
Change: -38.3%

Less than 20 million shares of Hewlett-Packard were traded on 19 of the 20 days in July the stock market was open in July. But once HP broke news that it was looking to shed its Personal Systems Group business, investors got very busy -- selling off. With that issue still up in the air, HP shares didn't get a jolt when Leo Apotheker was replaced by Meg Whitman as CEO.

Seagate Technology

Sept. 30, 2011: $10.27
June 30, 2011: $16.16
Change: -36.4%

After a big decline during the last week of July and first week of August, Seagate shares remained relatively stable for the rest of the quarter. The bad news is that the stock fell significantly during that two-week stretch and didn't recover.

NetApp

Sept. 30, 2011: $33.93
June 30, 2011: $52.78
Change: -35.7%

NetApp shares also fell during that July-August period, but the company's shares also fell almost $5 per share on Aug. 18 after missing analysts' expectations for its first fiscal quarter.

FalconStor

Sept. 30, 2011: $2.92
June 30, 2011: $4.48
Change: -34.8%

FalconStor closed the quarter mourning the tragic death of its former CEO ReiJane Huai.

Websense

Sept. 30, 2011: $17.30
June 30, 2011: $25.97
Change: -33.4%

Websense shares closed over $20 as recently as Sept. 1 but slowly declined to the $17 range over the last month of the quarter. The company was one of a handful that had a worse overall quarter than in the infamous period between July 21 and Aug. 8.

Brocade Communications

Sept. 30, 2011: $4.32
June 30, 2011: $6.46
Change: -33.1%

In late August, Brocade launched new monthly subscription pricing for some data center products. While it might not be a direct correlation, Brocade's shares have increased nearly 50 cents per share since that date. Of course, that's still well off the mark where the company began the quarter.

Xerox

Sept. 30, 2011: $6.97
June 30, 2011: $10.41
Change: -33.0%

Xerox's $6.97 closing price was not just its lowest close of the quarter. It marks the lowest closing price since July 2009.

Citrix Systems

Sept. 30, 2011: $54.53
June 30, 2011: $80.00
Change: -31.8%

Citrix's biggest decline in the third quarter came Aug. 18 when shares fell $6.74 to $51.96. Shares gained a couple bucks back over the next six weeks, a period in which the company unveiled XenDesktop 5.5.

NetSuite

Sept. 30, 2011: $27.01
June 30, 2011: $39.20
Change: -31.1%
Like several other stocks, NetSuite ended the quarter with a whimper. Its Sept. 30 closing price was not only the lowest of the quarter, but the lowest since Jan. 31.

Western Digital

Sept. 30, 2011: $25.72
June 30, 2011: $36.38
Change: -29.3%

Western Digital shares closed above $30 as recently as Sept. 22, but all that was wiped away during the next two weeks. Meanwhile, the company is still awaiting regulatory approval of its Hitachi GST acquisition.

Advanced Micro Devices

Sept. 30, 2011: $5.08
June 30, 2011: $6.99
Change: -27.3%

AMD was one of those rare companies that was trading higher in mid-September ($7.34 on Sept. 15) than it was at the beginning of the quarter. But then AMD cut its 3Q guidance and lost Rick Bergman, general manager of its product group and its shares fell more than $2 during the next 15 days.

EMC

Sept. 30, 2011: $20.99
June 30, 2011: $27.55
Change: -23.8%

EMC shares fell nearly 24 percent in the quarter, despite making its VNXe storage appliance a "channel only" product in August.

Salesforce.com

Sept. 30, 2011: $114.28
June 30, 2011: $148.98
Change: -23.3%

Even cloud companies aren't immune to economic downturns. Salesforce.com's Sept. 30 closing price was its lowest since last November. Recently, the company acquired help desk application developer Assistly to add to its customer service offerings.

Panasonic

Sept. 30, 2011: $9.52
June 30, 2011: $12.24
Change: -22.2%

Early in the quarter, Panasonic restructured its i-Pro Certified Reseller Program to reward its top resellers, but the company's stock has slowly declined all quarter.

QLogic

Sept. 30, 2011: $12.68
June 30, 2011: $15.92
Change: -20.4%

QLogic had the dubious distinction of being one of the 10 worst tech stocks during the July 21-Aug. 8 period, but if the company's shares increases slightly since that period.

VMware

Sept. 30, 2011: $80.38
June 30, 2011: $100.23
Change: -19.8%

VMWare's stock gained a few dollars per share since closing at $76.76 on Aug. 19. The problem is that it had already lost more than $20 per share since the beginning of the quarter. In mid-September, VMWare launched its View 5 desktop virtualization software to the general public.

Symantec

Sept. 30, 2011: $16.30
June 30, 2011: $19.72
Change: -17.3%

Symantec shares roller-coastered during July and August, trading as low as $15 and as high as $19 per share before closing at $16.30. During the quarter, Symantec rolled out Backup Exec.Cloud through distributors Ingram Micro and Synnex.

CommVault Systems

Sept. 30, 2011: $37.06
June 30, 2011: $44.45
Change: -16.6%

CommVault shares closed as low as $32.08 on Sept. 9 and gained nearly $5 during the last three weeks of the quarter. In August, the company launched its Virtual Infrastructure Reference Architecture Leaders (VIRAL) channel enablement program for resellers.

SAP

Sept. 30, 2011: $50.62
June 30, 2011: $60.62
Change: -16.5%

SAP shares have dipped above and below the $50 mark since the big stock slide that ended Aug. 8. Recently, the software giant introduced some expanded sales opportunities to BI partners.

Dell

Sept. 30, 2011: $14.14
June 30, 2011: $16.67
Change: -15.2%

Shares of Dell didn't fare as bad as other tech vendors during the July 21-Aug. 8 period, so the company didn't have as high to bounce back. The company's stock has traded in the $14-$15 range since early August. During that period, CEO Michael Dell has been hot on the channel, looking to recruit more reseller business in light of the turmoil around HP.

CA Technologies

Sept. 30, 2011: $19.41
June 30, 2011: $22.84
Change: -15.0%

CA shares have hovered between the $19-$20 range since early August after trading for $22-$23 earlier in the quarter. In early August, CA acquired WatchMouse, a SaaS-based application monitoring player.

Oracle

Sept. 30, 2011: $28.74
June 30, 2011: $32.91
Change: -12.7%

Oracle shares traded below $25 in August, but the company has rebounded and reached the $30 mark again before closing the quarter at $28.74. In September, the company announced its hardware sales continued to fall but that overall sales increased 12 percent.

Motorola Solutions

Sept. 30, 2011: $41.90
June 30, 2011: $46.04
Change: -9.0%

News broke late last week that Motorola Solutions is being investigated for alleged bribes to win business in Europe. The reports barely made a ripple on Wall Street however and the company's shares closed at more than $3 higher than they did in mid-August.

Red Hat

Sept. 30, 2011: $42.26
June 30, 2011: $45.90
Change: -7.9%

Red Hat shares nearly approached their third-quarter opening price in late September when the stock closed at $44.72 on Sept. 27. Still, it was a strong performance since shares were trading as low as $31.87 on Aug. 19.

Lexmark International

Sept. 30, 2011: $27.03
June 30, 2011: $29.26
Change: -7.6%

Lexmark was the lone tech stock star during the July 21-Aug. 8 period, showing an increase in price during that time. The wave didn't last and Lexmark ended the quarter down 7.6 percent. Its Sept. 30 close was its lowest since June.

Check Point Software Technologies

Sept. 30, 2011: $52.76
June 30, 2011: $56.85
Change: -7.2%

Check Point's shares were relatively stable in the quarter, compared to other tech vendors. In August, new president Amnon Bar-Lev said his new position would lead to a slew of changes for resellers including endeavors in the mobile space and SMB cloud services, with a reinvigorated focus on partner enablement.

Microsoft

Sept. 30, 2011: $24.89
June 30, 2011: $26.00
Change: -4.3%

Shares of Microsoft were trading higher than their June 30 close as recent as Sept. 20. During the quarter, Microsoft gave out a sneak peak of its upcoming Windows 8 OS.

Intel

Sept. 30, 2011: $21.33
June 30, 2011: $22.16
Change: -3.7%

Intel shares fell nearly $1 per share on Sept. 30, otherwise, the chip giant would have seen a stock share gain for the third quarter. In last September, Intel pushed ahead with its new Atom series of microprocessors called Cedar Trail.

Cisco Systems

Sept. 30, 2011: $15.50
June 30, 2011: $15.61
Change: -0.7%

Like Intel, Cisco Systems was also on pace to post a third-quarter stock gain until the last day of the quarter. Shares had traded as high as $16.67 on Sept. 15. Cisco VARs got some welcome news in mid-September, when the company said it would pump $75 million into channel programs and incentives.

IBM

Sept. 30, 2011: $174.87
June 30, 2011: $171.55
Change: 1.9%

The old saying goes 'Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM' and that might extend to Wall Street too. Despite all the turmoil in the third quarter, IBM shares increased almost 2 percent. The company also issued a 75-cent stock dividend in the quarter and committed $1 billion to SMB financing.

Apple

Sept. 30, 2011: $381.32
June 30, 2011: $335.67
Change: 13.6%

Even with a new CEO and no new major product announcements, Apple showed it was practically bulletproof during economic hard times. Its shares increased more than 13 percent during the third quarter and made headlines for having more cash than the U.S. Treasury.

Lenovo Group

Sept. 30, 2011: $13.24
June 30, 2011: $11.38
Change: 16.3%

The biggest tech stock winner of the third quarter wasn't Apple, it was Lenovo, which perhaps benefited from all the turmoil surrounding HP's PC division to win some mind share from investors. Though remaining relatively quiet, Lenovo stands to benefit from HP's PC uncertainty.