The Best And Worst Technology Company Stocks In 2014
Many Winners -- And Some Big Losers -- In Tech Vendor Stocks In 2014
It was a decidedly mixed pack of financial performances from the leading publicly held IT vendors in 2014. And that was reflected in the performance of their stock: 26 of the companies we follow saw the value of their share increase last year, with the biggest gaining 48 percent, while 11 suffered declining share prices with the worst recording a 31 percent drop.
How does that compare to the stock market overall? In 2014 the Dow Jones Index was up 7.52 percent while the Nasdaq was up more than 13.40 percent.
Here's a look at who was up and who was down in 2014, starting with companies with the biggest gains in share price, based on stock closing prices between Dec. 31, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2014.
Palo Alto Networks
CEO: Mark McLaughlin
Dec. 31, 2013: $57.47
Dec. 31, 2014: $122.57
Change: +113.28%
Cybersecurity technology developer Palo Alto Networks had a very good 2014 on Wall Street, recording the biggest gain in share price among all the companies on our watch list.
Certainly the company's rapid growth gave a boost to the company's stock. For fiscal 2014 (ended July 31), Palo Alto Networks reported revenue of $598.18 million, up 51 percent from $396.18 in fiscal 2013. That growth continued into the first quarter of fiscal 2015 (ended Oct. 31) when revenue surged 50 percent year-over-year to $192.35 million.
But like a few other companies on our list, Palo Alto Networks appears to be more focused on growth rather than profitability for the moment. The company recorded a loss of $226.45 million in fiscal 2014, compared to a $29.25 million loss in fiscal 2013. And in the first fiscal 2015 quarter the bottom line was a loss of $30.07 million, compared to the $7.86 million loss one year earlier.
BlackBerry
CEO: John Chen
Dec. 31, 2013: $7.44
Dec. 31, 2014: $10.98
Change: +47.58%
As recently as 18 months ago BlackBerry appeared to be in free-fall and might not survive. While the mobile device company's survival is by no means assured, it's a testament to the efforts of Chen & Co. how much things there have turned around.
The company has made some savvy moves this year, including leveraging key technology assets such as its BBM secure messaging service and BlackBerry Enterprise Server device management platform, forming strategic alliances with Foxconn and Samsung, investing in a medical IT cloud services provider, and launching the BlackBerry Passport and Classic smartphones.
For the nine months ended Nov. 29, BlackBerry reported revenue of $2.68 billion, down 54 percent from the first three quarters of the previous fiscal year. But the company's net loss for that period narrowed to $332 million from nearly $5.5 billion.
Quantum
CEO: Jon Gacek
Dec. 31, 2013: $1.20
Dec. 31, 2014: $1.76
Change: +46.67%
While a share price gain of 56 cents may not seem like much, it was enough percentagewise to place Quantum at No. 2 on our list.
The storage technology developer reported sales of $263.2 million for the first six months of fiscal 2015 ended Sept. 30, down almost 6 percent from the same six months the previous year.
In August, Quantum expanded its cloud-based backup offerings by acquiring Symform's cloud storage technology and its development team.
Hewlett-Packard
CEO: Meg Whitman
Dec. 31, 2013: $27.98
Dec. 31, 2014: $40.13
Change: +43.42%
In October, Hewlett-Packard surprised the industry when it disclosed plans to 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.
For its fiscal 2014 ended Oct. 31 HP reported sales of $111.45 billion, down less than 1 percent from $112.30 billion in fiscal 2013. Net earnings for the year were down nearly 2 percent to $5.01 billion.
Intel
CEO: Brian Krzanich
Dec. 31, 2013: $25.96
Dec. 31, 2014: $36.29
Change: +39.79%
At the International Consumer Electronics Show this month Intel wowed the audience with displays of drones, leading-edge PCs and the company's RealSense voice- and gesture-control technology. The demonstrations show how much Intel has expanded beyond its core business of making x86 microprocessors for desktop computers.
For the nine-month period ended Sept. 27 Intel reported revenue of $41.15 billion, up almost 6 percent from the first nine months of 2013 when the chip-maker reported revenue of $38.87 billion.
Net income for the first three quarters of 2014 was up 15 percent to $8.04 billion.
Apple
CEO: Tim Cook
Dec. 31, 2013: $80.15
Dec. 31, 2014: $109.33
Change: +36.41%
While some have questioned whether Apple can remain the industry force it was under the late Steve Jobs, there were few signs in 2014 that Apple has lost its creative mojo.
On Sept. 9 Apple debuted the iPhone 6, the next generation of the company's popular smartphone, as well as the Apple Watch, Apple Pay and iOS8. In the first 24 hours of taking preorders for the new iPhone, Apple had sold 4 million units. Still, there were reasons for concern, including the 13 percent to 14 percent decline in iTunes sales in fiscal 2014.
For fiscal 2014 ended Sept. 27 Apple reported sales of $182.80 billion, up almost 7 percent over $170.91 billion in fiscal 2013. The company's net income also increased nearly 7 percent to $39.51 billion.
Brocade Communications Systems
CEO: Lloyd Carney
Dec. 31, 2013: $8.87
Dec. 31, 2014: $11.94
Change: +33.48%
Carney, named a Top 25 Innovator by CRN in 2014, has energized the data and storage networking company and helped guide it to the industry's next big opportunities in data center virtualization, cloud computing and software-defined networking. Wall Street has apparently noticed.
Nevertheless, Brocade reported a slight (0.5 percent) sales decline in fiscal 2014 (ended Nov. 1) to $2.21 billion. But net income for the year grew a healthy 14 percent to $237.97 million.
Western Digital
CEO: Steve Milligan
Dec. 31, 2013: $83.90
Dec. 31, 2014: $110.7
Change: +31.94%
In December, hard drive manufacturer Western Digital's HGST flash storage business acquired Skyera, a developer of solid-state storage systems for scale-out cloud systems and enterprise data centers. The value of the all-cash acquisition was not disclosed.
For its first fiscal quarter ended Oct. 3 WDC reported revenue of $3.94 billion, up nearly 4 percent over the same period one year earlier. Net income was $423 million, down more than 14 percent year-over-year from $495 million.
The company will announce its second-quarter financial results Jan. 27.
Microsoft
CEO: Satya Nadella
Dec. 31, 2013: $37.41
Dec. 31, 2014: $46.45
Change: +24.16%
Under the direction of Satya Nadella, named CEO in February, Microsoft has undertaken some significant shifts in direction, moving away from a Windows-centric view of the universe and toward Nadella's vision of becoming a "productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world." Beyond a corporate restructuring to make that vision a reality, evidence of Microsoft's new thinking in 2014 included open-sourcing its .NET technology and developing Office editions for the iPad and Android devices.
For the company's fiscal 2014 ended June 30 Microsoft reported revenue of $86.83 billion, up 11.5 percent from $77.85 billion in fiscal 2013. But net income for the year rose just under 1 percent to $22.07 billion.
In the company's fiscal 2015 first quarter ended Sept. 30 sales surged 25 percent to $23.20 billion. But net income declined more than 13 percent to $4.54 billion.
Cisco Systems
CEO: John Chambers
Dec. 31, 2013: $22.43
Dec. 31, 2014: $27.82
Change: +24.03%
Cisco remains a company in transition, expanding beyond its networking hardware roots into new areas such as converged systems, software-defined networking and the Internet of Things. But those transformations came with a price in 2014, including shrinking profit margins and employee layoffs.
For its fiscal 2014 ended July 26 Cisco reported revenue of $47.14 billion, down 3 percent from $48.61 billion in fiscal 2013. Net income for the year was $7.85 billion, down a significant 21 percent from $9.98 billion in fiscal 2013.
For its first quarter of fiscal 2015 ended Oct. 25 Cisco reported revenue of $12.25 billion, up more than 1 percent from $12.06 billion in the same period one year earlier. But net income declined more than 8 percent to $1.83 billion.
Red Hat
CEO: James Whitehurst
Dec. 31, 2013: $56.04
Dec. 31, 2014: $69.14
Change: +23.38%
In April, Red Hat struck a deal to acquire Inktank, the developer of the open-source storage technology, for $175 million. In June, it disclosed plans to buy eNovance, a European cloud services provider and major contributor to the OpenStack community, for 50 million Euro in cash and 20 million Euro in Red Hat stock.
For the first three quarters (ended Nov. 30) of Red Hat's current fiscal year the company reported revenue of $1.33 billion, up nearly 17 percent from $1.13 billion for the same three quarters in the prior fiscal year. But net income for the nine-month period declined about 0.5 percent to $132.50 million.
Tableau Software
CEO: Christian Chabot
Dec. 31, 2013: $68.93
Dec. 31, 2014: $84.76
Change: +22.97%
Data visualization software developer Tableau went public in May 2013 at $47 a share, and the company has continued to ride the big data technology wave.
For the first three quarters (ended Sept. 30) of fiscal 2014 Tableau reported revenue of $269.69 million, up nearly 79 percent from $150.98 million in the same three-quarter period in 2013. But the company's net loss for that period grew to $14.83 million compared to a loss of $4.17 million for the first three quarters of fiscal 2013.
The company will report its fourth quarter and fiscal 2014 results on Feb. 4.
Check Point Software Technologies
CEO: Gil Shwed
Dec. 31, 2013: $64.50
Dec. 31, 2014: $78.57
Change: +21.81%
For the first three quarters (ended Sept. 30) of fiscal 2014 security technology appliance vendor Check Point Software Technologies reported revenue of $1.08 billion, up nearly 7 percent from the same three-quarter period in 2013. Net income for the three quarters increased more than 3 percent to $473.79 million.
The company will report its fourth quarter and fiscal 2014 results on Jan. 29.
Seagate Technology
CEO: Stephen Luczo
Dec. 31, 2013: $56.16
Dec. 31, 2014: $66.50
Change: +18.41%
For its fiscal 2014 ended June 27 Seagate reported revenue of $13.72 billion, down more than 4 percent from $14.35 billion in fiscal 2013. Net income for the fiscal year was $1.57 billion, down more than 14 percent from $1.84 billion in fiscal 2013.
For the fiscal 2014 first quarter ended Oct. 3 the disk drive and storage technology manufacturer reported revenue of $3.79 billion, up more than 8 percent from the same period one year earlier. Net income for the quarter was down almost 11 percent year-over-year to $381 million.
EMC
CEO: Joe Tucci
Dec. 31, 2013: $25.15
Dec. 31, 2014: $29.74
Change: +18.25%
All throughout 2014 EMC was reported to be either discussing a merger with either Hewlett-Packard or Dell (the reports were true, but the talks went nowhere) or selling its 80 percent stake in VMware (which didn't happen). But in October, the storage giant did acquire most of Cisco's interest in VCE and moved it into its federation of subsidiary companies.
For the first three quarters (ended Sept. 30) of fiscal 2014 EMC reported revenue of $17.39 billion, up more than 5 percent from $16.54 billion in the first three quarters of fiscal 2013. Net income for the three quarters, however, dropped 16 percent to $1.57 billion.
EMC will report its fourth quarter and fiscal 2014 year-end results on Jan. 28.
Oracle
CEOs: Mark Hurd and Safra Catz
Dec. 31, 2013: $38.26
Dec. 31, 2014: $44.97
Change: +17.54%
In 2014 Oracle focused much of its energy on building up its cloud software, platform and infrastructure services. But while those nascent lines of business grew quickly, sales of the company's core software products and hardware systems grew more slowly -- if at all -- during the year.
The year was also significant for Oracle in that founder Larry Ellison announced he was relinquishing the CEO role to co-presidents Safra Catz and Mark Hurd. But Ellison was named company chairman and took on the role of CTO, so few expected any major shifts in the company's direction.
For the first half (ending Nov. 30) of the company's fiscal 2015 Oracle reported revenue of $18.19 billion, up 3 percent from $17.65 billion in the first half of fiscal 2014. But net income for the six months of fiscal 2015 declined 1 percent year-over-year to $4.69 billion.
Lexmark International
CEO: Paul Rooke
Dec. 31, 2013: $35.52
Dec. 31, 2014: $41.27
Change: +16.19%
Lexmark has been transitioning from a hardware-centric printer manufacturing company to focus more on document management software and print management solutions. The company's Perceptive Software subsidiary, for example, develops a line of intelligent capture, content and process management, enterprise search and integration software products.
For the first three quarters (ended Sept. 30) of fiscal 2014 Lexmark reported revenue of $2.69 billion, up just short of 1 percent from the first three quarters of fiscal 2013. Net income for the three quarters was $104.7 million, down more than 37 percent year-over-year.
Xerox
CEO: Ursula Burns
Dec. 31, 2013: $12.17
Dec. 31, 2014: $13.86
Change: +13.89%
In December Xerox announced a deal to sell its IT outsourcing business to Atos, a France-based IT services company, for $1.05 billion.
For the first three quarters (ended Sept. 30) of Xerox's fiscal 2014 the company reported revenue of $15.50 billion, down 2 percent from $15.79 billion revenue in the first three quarters of fiscal 2013. Net income for the three quarters was down 5 percent year-over-year to $813.0 million.
QLogic
CEO: Prasad Rampalli
Dec. 31, 2013: $11.83
Sept. 30, 2014: $13.32
Change: +12.60%
QLogic reported revenue of $247.0 million for the first two quarters (ended Sept. 30) of the company's fiscal 2015, up more than 9 percent from $225.7 million in the first half of the company's fiscal 2014. The network infrastructure company's net income soared to $17.01 million in the first half of the fiscal year, compared to net income of $7.93 million in the first half of fiscal 2013.
Symantec
CEO: Michael Brown
Dec. 31, 2013: $23.58
Dec. 31, 2014: $25.66
Change: +8.82%
In October Symantec announced a plan to split into two companies, one focused on security technology and the other on data management. Shortly before that the company named interim president and CEO Michael Brown to be the company's permanent CEO, replacing previous CEO Steve Bennett who was let go earlier in the year.
Apparently that plan is going over well with Symantec shareholders given the year-to-year rise in the price of the company's stock.
Symantec reported revenue of $3.35 billion for the first two quarters (ended Oct. 3) of fiscal 2015, flat with the same two-quarter period in fiscal 2013. Net income for the two quarters was $480 million, up 21 percent from net income in the first half of fiscal 2013. The company will announce third-quarter earnings on Feb. 5.
Netgear
CEO: Patrick Lo
Dec. 31, 2013: $32.94
Dec. 31, 2014: $35.58
Change: +8.01%
Netgear reported revenue of $1.04 billion for the first three quarters of 2014, up more than 2 percent from $1.01 billion in the first three quarters of 2013. Net income for the three quarters was $49.1 million, up more than 12 percent from $43.8 million in the same time period in 2013.
Salesforce.com
CEO: Marc Benioff
Dec. 31, 2013: $55.19
Dec. 31, 2014: $59.31
Change: +7.47%
Salesforce entered the $38 billion business analytics software market in October when the company unveiled its Wave cloud analytics platform at its annual Dreamforce conference in October.
Salesforce reported revenue of $3.93 billion for the first three quarters (ended Oct. 31) of fiscal 2015, up more than 34 percent from revenue of $2.93 billion in the same period one year earlier.
But Salesforce remains focused on growth rather than profitability. The company reported a $196.92 million loss for the first three quarters of fiscal 2015, bigger than the $115.56 million loss in the same three-quarter period the year before.
Lenovo Group
CEO: Yang Yuanqing
Dec. 31, 2013: $24.43
Dec. 31, 2014: $26.22
Change: +7.33%
On Sept. 30 Lenovo completed its long-awaited $2.1 billion acquisition of IBM's x86 server business, a move that immediately puts the Chinese computer company into the data center market dominated by such companies as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and IBM.
One month later the company completed its $2. -billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google, a move that makes Lenovo the world's No. 3 smartphone manufacturer.
Lenovo reported revenue of $10.5 billion for the first half ended Sept. 30 of fiscal 2015, up 7 percent from the same period in fiscal 2014. Net income for the two quarters totaled $262 million, up 19 percent year-over-year.
NetSuite
CEO: Zach Nelson
Dec. 31, 2013: $103.02
Dec. 31, 2014: $109.17
Change: +5.97%
Cloud application vendor NetSuite continues to focus on growth, even at the cost of profitability. For the first three quarters of 2014 the company reported revenue of $398.42 million, up 33 percent from revenue of $299.50 million in the first three quarters of 2013.
But the company's net loss grew to $74.69 million, compared to a net loss of $50.20 million in the first three quarters of 2013.
While much of NetSuite's growth in 2014 was organic, the company did make acquisitions during the year including Venda, a London, U.K.-based developer of cloud ecommerce applications, for an undisclosed sum.
Panasonic
CEO (North America): Joe Taylor
Dec. 31, 2013: $11.66
Dec. 31, 2014: $11.77
Change: +0.94%
For the first six months (ended Sept. 30) of Panasonic's fiscal 2015 the company reported revenue of 3.72 trillion Yen ($31.88 billion), up less than 1 percent from 3.71 trillion Yen ($31.78 billion) in the first half of fiscal 2014.
Net income for the six months, however, plummeted more than 52 percent to 80.93 billion Yen ($691.79 million) from 169.33 billion Yen ($1.45 billion) in the first half of fiscal 2014.
Citrix Systems
CEO: Mark Templeton
Dec. 31, 2013: $63.25
Dec. 31, 2014: $63.80
Change: +0.87 %
In late June Citrix said that Templeton, who earlier this year announced his intention to retire, had changed his mind and would stay on as president and CEO. That news was widely seen as adding stability and focus to the company at a time when it's under pressure from VMware and other competitors in such areas as virtualization and enterprise mobility management.
For the first three quarters of 2014 ended Sept. 30, Citrix reported revenue of $2.29 billion, up more than 8 percent from revenue of $2.12 billion in the same period in 2013. But the company's net income declined 22 percent year-over-year from $200.88 million in the first nine months of 2013 to $156.50 million in the first nine months of 2014.
NetApp
CEO: Tom Georgens
Dec. 31, 2013: $41.14
Dec. 31, 2014: $41.45
Change: +0.75%
Storage technology vendor NetApp is counting on new products it unveiled in the latter half of 2014 to spur the company's sales growth. Those included new hybrid cloud systems, the long-awaited FlashRay all-flash storage platform and the new Mars OS storage operating system.
NetApp also recorded declining OEM sales through IBM in 2014.
For the six-month period ending Oct. 24 NetApp reported sales of $3.03 billion, down more than 1 percent from $3.07 billion in the same period in 2013. Net income for the six months was essentially flat with the year before at $248.2 million.
Motorola Solutions
CEO: Greg Brown
Dec. 31, 2013: $67.50
Dec. 31, 2014: $67.08
Change: -0.62%
Motorola Solutions is the first company on our watch list to record a stock price decline in 2014.
For the nine months ended Sept. 27 Motorola reported sales of $4.06 billion, down 8 percent from $4.41 billion in the same period in 2013. But net income for the nine months was up 45 percent year-over-year to $1.10 billion from $762 million.
FalconStor Software
CEO: Gary Quinn
Dec. 31, 2013: $1.35
Dec. 31, 2014: $1.34
Change: -0.74%
A drop in a company's stock price is never a good thing. But given that FalconStor has recorded some double-digit declines in quarters past, the drop of less than 1 percent in the value of the unified data management platform developer's shares in 2014 is encouraging.
For the first nine months (ending Sept. 30) of 2014 FalconStor reported revenue of $34.48 million, down almost 22 percent from $43.99 million in the first nine months of 2013. The company's loss for the nine-month period was $4.70 million, an improvement from the $11.81 million net loss in the first nine months of 2013.
Juniper Networks
CEO: Rami Rahim
Dec. 31, 2013: $22.57
Dec. 31, 2014: $22.32
Change: -1.11%
It's been a tough couple of years for Juniper personnel-wise, with many executives -- both at the top and in channel management -- leaving the company. The management shifts reached a peak in November when CEO Shaygan Kheradpir, who took over at the beginning of the year, was dismissed after the company's board reviewed his leadership, and specifically called into question his conduct "in connection with a particular negotiation with a customer."
The company also spent much of the year executing on a major restructuring and cost-cutting plan.
For the first nine months (ended Sept. 30) of 2014 Juniper Networks reported revenue of $3.53 billion, up almost 4 percent from $3.40 billion in the same period in 2013. Net income for the nine-month period soared more than 51 percent to $435.3 million from $288.0 million one year earlier.
CEO: Larry Page
Dec. 31, 2013: $559.79
Dec. 31, 2014: $526.40
Change: -5.96%
Google seemed to be involved in everything in 2014, from Google Glass to self-driving cars, let alone its booming cloud applications business and core search business. So it's something of a shock the company's growth and seeming omnipresence didn't translate into share-price growth.
For the first nine months (ended Sept. 30) of 2014 Google reported revenue of $47.90 billion, up 20 percent from $39.81 billion in the same period in 2013. Net income for the nine-month period, however, grew an anemic 1.5 percent year-over-year to $9.69 billion in 2014 from $9.54 billion in 2013.
SAP
CEO: Bill McDermott
Dec. 31, 2013: $74.86
Dec. 31, 2014: $69.65
Change: -6.96%
SAP has been undergoing a massive transformation from its core business of selling on-premises applications to providing cloud-based applications and services to customers of all sizes. Those efforts in 2014 included marketing cloud versions of SAP's own products, such as SAP Business One, and acquiring cloud products from outside, including the $8.3 billion acquisition of Concur, a developer of Software-as-a-Service travel and expense applications.
SAP's cloud subscription and support sales in 2014 were 1.09 billion euro ($1.29 billion), up 56 percent from 2013. But in a sign of SAP's balancing act as it moves to the cloud, software sales for the entire year declined 3 percent to 4.40 billion euro ($5.20 billion).
VMware
CEO: Pat Gelsinger
Dec. 31, 2013: $89.71
Dec. 31, 2014: $82.52
Change: -8.01%
EMC withstood pressure from "activist investors" in 2014 to sell off its stake in VMware.
VMware launched a raft of new products at its VMworld conference in August, including new hyper-converged appliances and the VMware Workplace Suite bundle with the recently acquired AirWatch mobile device management technology.
For the first nine months (ended Sept. 30) of 2014 VMware reported revenue of $4.33 billion, up more than 16 percent from $3.72 billion in the same period in 2013. Net income, however, declined more than 17 percent year-over-year to $560 million from $679 million in 2013.
CA Technologies
CEO: Michael Gregoire
Dec. 31, 2013: $33.65
Dec. 31, 2014: $30.45
Change: -9.51%
CA Technologies has been trying to jump-start its growth, outlining a plan in 2014 to focus its efforts on IT and cloud management, security and DevOps products and services.
For the first two quarters (ended Sept. 30) of CA's fiscal 2015, the company reported revenue of $2.15 billion, down more than 2 percent from $2.20 billion in the same period one year earlier. Net income for the six-month period declined nearly 18 percent year-over-year to $473 million from $575 million.
IBM
CEO: Virginia Rometty
Dec. 31, 2013: $187.57
Dec. 31, 2014: $160.44
Change: -14.46%
IBM spent 2014 transforming itself to focus more on high-value software and cloud services, such as leveraging the SoftLayer Technologies cloud infrastructure business it acquired in 2013, in an effort to boost growth.
IBM's biggest move came on Oct. 1 when it completed its $2.1 billion sale of its x86 server business to Lenovo. The same month IBM paid GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion to take its money-losing chip manufacturing business.
For the first three quarters (ended Sept. 30) of 2014 IBM reported revenue of $68.68 billion, down 3.2 percent from $70.98 billion in the same period in 2013. Net income for the three quarters in 2014 was $6.54 billion, down 36.5 percent from $10.30 billion in the first three quarters of 2013.
FireEye
CEO: David DeWalt
Dec. 31, 2013: $43.61
Dec. 31, 2014: $31.58
Change: -27.59%
After going public in September 2013 at $36 a share, FireEye's stock price hit a high of $95.63 per share in March. And it's been downhill ever since.
There's no denying the company's rapid growth, however. For the first three quarters (ended Sept. 30) of 2014, FireEye reported revenue of $282.68 million, up 171 percent from revenue of $104.29 million in the first three quarters of 2013. But the company's net loss almost tripled to $338.06 million in the first three quarters of 2014 from $118.12 million in the same period in 2013.
CommVault Systems
CEO: N. Robert Hammer
Dec. 31, 2013: $74.86
Dec. 31, 2014: $51.69
Change: -30.95%
For the six months ended Sept. 30, data and information management software developer CommVault reported revenue of $303.79 million, up 10 percent from $276.27 million in the same period in 2013. But net income for the six-month period was $19.23 million, down more than 37 percent from $30.82 million one year before.
Advanced Micro Devices
CEO: Lisa Su
Dec. 31, 2013: $3.87
Dec. 31, 2014: $2.67
Change: -31.01%
AMD named COO Lisa Su its new CEO on Oct. 8 after Rory Read unexpectedly stepped down from the chip designer's top job. In October the company announced plans to reduce its workforce by 7 percent.
For the first nine months (ended Sept. 27) of 2014 AMD reported revenue of $4.27 billion, up 15 percent from $3.71 billion in the first nine months of 2013. AMD reported a net loss of $39 million for the nine months, a significant improvement from the $172 million loss the company recorded in the first nine months of 2013.