The Best And Worst Technology Company Stocks In The First Half Of 2019
Of the 44 technology companies on our watch list, 34 recorded gains in the price of their publicly traded shares during the first six months of 2019 and only 10 recorded price declines. Take a look at who were the winners and who were the losers.
Riding A Stock Market Surge, Three Quarters Of Our Tech Stock Watch List See Price Gains In First Half Of 2019
After a roller-coaster end to 2018, stock markets in the first half of 2019 were generally been on the rise despite uncertainties about the global economy and trade tensions with China. (The roller coaster has since resumed, especially in August as recession fears have worsened.)
The Dow Jones closed the six months of trading (ended June 28) at 26,599.96, up more than 14 percent from the close of 2018. The tech-heavy Nasdaq faired even better, closing out the first half at 8006.24, up nearly 21 percent from its 2018 close.
Thirty-four of the 44 technology companies on our watch list recorded stock price increases in the first half of 2019—22 of them by double-digit amounts. Only 10 companies saw the value of their stock decline during the six-month period.
Here's a look at who was up and who was down in the first half of 2019, starting with companies with the biggest gains in share price, based on stock closing prices on Dec. 31, 2018, and June 28, 2019.
Xerox
CEO: John Visentin
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $19.76
June 28, 2019 Close: $35.41
Change: +79.20%
Xerox had a turbulent 2018 that included an abandoned deal for Fujifilm Holdings to acquire a majority stake in the printer and copier manufacturer, a battle involving activist investor Carl Icahn and major shareholder Darwin Deason for control of the company, and changes in the company's executive ranks and board of directors. The company's stock lost more than 32 percent of its value during the year.
But the company has certainly turned the corner this year with its stock increasing nearly 80 percent in value – the biggest gain among the 44 companies on our watch list.
In early June Xerox formed an alliance with printer rival HP Inc. under which Xerox will sell HP A3 and A4 devices running Xerox's ConnectKey software. The two companies also will work together to expand the nascent Device-as-a-Service market.
For the six months ended June 30, Xerox reported revenue of just under $4.50 billion, down 9.1 percent from $4.95 billion in the first half of 2018. But the company's net income for the six-month period surged to $314 million compared with $135 million one year earlier.
Advanced Micro Devices
CEO: Lisa Su
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $18.46
June 28, 2019 Close: $30.37
Change: +64.52%
Resurgent chipmaker AMD has seen its stock price rise over the last year and a half—it registered the biggest gain among all our tech vendor stocks in 2018—and the chipmaker's stock price continued rising in the first half of 2019.
With its Ryzen CPU processors and Radeon graphics cards, AMD has been shaking up the market. And AMD recently launched its EPYC 64-core CPUs, the company's first 7-nanometer processors.
For the six months ended June 30, AMD reported revenue of $2.80 billion, down nearly 18 percent from $3.40 billion in the first half of 2018. The company reported net income of $51 million for the six months compared with net income of $197 million one year earlier. The declines were due largely to slower sales in the computing and graphics segment.
ServiceNow
CEO: John Donahoe
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $178.05
June 28, 2019 Close: $274.57
Change: +54.21%
On May 2 ServiceNow CFO Mike Scarpelli announced that he would leave the company following the release of the company's second-quarter earnings in July. Scarpelli expressed a desire to return to working with startups.
For the six months ended June 30, ServiceNow reported revenue of $1.62 billion, up 33 percent from $1.22 billion in the first half of 2018. The company reported a loss of $12.6 million for the six months, compared with a loss of $42.1 million in the same period one year earlier.
Tableau Software
CEO: Adam Selipsky
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $120.00
June 28, 2019 Close: $166.02
Change: +38.35%
On June 10 business analytics software developer Tableau struck a deal to be acquired by cloud application giant Salesforce.com in an all-stock transaction valued at $15.7 billion. The acquisition was completed on Aug. 1 and Tableau's stock ceased trading, closing at $169.53 per share.
Salesforce said the combination of Tableau's business analytics software with its own cloud CRM applications creates a potent combination to address customers' digital transformation needs. Salesforce has stated that it intends to operate Tableau as an independent subsidiary under the Tableau name and its current management.
For the first three months ended March 31 of 2019, Tableau reported revenue of $282.5 million, up nearly 15 percent from $246.2 million in the first quarter of 2018. The company reported an $88.9 million loss for the quarter compared with a $46.5 million loss one year earlier.
SAP
CEO: Bill McDermott
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $99.55
June 28, 2019 Close: $136.80
Change: +37.42%
SAP has been transitioning itself and its customers to cloud software. The company has set itself the goal of having revenue from cloud subscriptions and software support account for 70 percent to 75 percent of its sales in 2020.
On Jan. 23 SAP completed its $8 billion acquisition of Qualtrics, a developer of experience management or "XM" applications. SAP and Qualtrics unveiled the acquisition deal in November 2018.
For the first six months ended June 30 of 2019, SAP reported total revenue of 12.72 billion euro (U.S. $14.17 billion), up 13 percent from 11.26 billion euro (U.S. $12.54 billion) in the first half of 2018. But after-tax profit for the six months was 475 million euro (U.S. $529.2 million), down 67 percent from 1.43 billion euro (U.S. $1.59 billion) one year ago.
Microsoft
CEO: Satya Nadella
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $101.57
June 28, 2019 Close: $133.96
Change: +31.89%
In January the Pentagon announced that Microsoft had been awarded a $1.76 billion IT support and services contract. Microsoft, along with Amazon Web Services, is in the running for the massive $10 billion JEDI cloud services contract for the military.
For all of fiscal 2019 ended June 30, Microsoft reported total revenue of $125.84 billion, up 14 percent from $110.36 billion in fiscal 2018. Net income for the fiscal year was $39.24 billion, more than double the $16.57 billion net income reported one year earlier.
Western Digital Corp.
CEO: Stephen Milligan
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $36.97
June 28, 2019 Close: $47.55
Change: +28.62%
After Western Digital's stock lost more than half of its value (nearly 54 percent) in 2018, the storage technology developer gained some of those losses back in the first half of 2019.
In April Western Digital hired Robert Eulau as its new chief financial officer and executive vice president, taking over from CFO Mark Long who, as announced earlier, stepped down in June.
For all of fiscal 2019 ended June 28, Western Digital reported revenue of $16.57 billion, down nearly 20 percent from $20.65 billion in fiscal 2018. The company reported a loss of $754 million for fiscal 2019 compared with net income of $675 million one year earlier.
Cisco Systems
CEO: Chuck Robbins
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $43.33
June 28, 2019 Close: $54.73
Change: +26.31%
Cisco has been transforming itself from a networking hardware manufacturer to a supplier of software for communications, security and other IT, and transitioning to a subscription-based revenue model.
On Feb. 6 Cisco completed its $660 million acquisition of Luxtera, a developer of semiconductors that use silicon photonics to build integrated optics capabilities for webscale applications, enterprise data centers and service providers. Cisco is incorporating the technology into its intent-based networking product portfolio.
For its fiscal 2019 ended July 27, Cisco reported total revenue of $51.90 billion, up more than 5 percent from $49.33 billion in fiscal 2018.
Oracle
CEOs: Safra Catz and Mark Hurd
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $45.15
June 28, 2019 Close: $56.97
Change: +26.18%
For all of fiscal 2019 ended May 31, Oracle reported revenue of $39.50 billion, essentially flat with revenue of $39.38 billion in fiscal 2018. But net income soared to $11.08 billion in fiscal 2019, up 209 percent from $3.59 billion one year earlier, thanks to a $7.7 billion reduction in its tax burden due to the U.S. 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Amazon
CEO: Jeff Bezos
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $1,501.97
June 28, 2019 Close: $1,893.63
Change: +26.08%
In its second quarter ended June 30, Amazon said it will "upskill" or retrain 100,000 of its employees by 2025, at a cost of $700 million, to help employees move into more highly skilled jobs—either within or outside the company.
Also in the quarter, Amazon began hiring for its "HQ2" second headquarters in Arlington, Va., where it plans to eventually employ 25,000 highly skilled workers over the next decade. The company also unveiled development plans for the first phase of construction for the new urban campus.
For the six months ended June 30, Amazon reported revenue of $123.10 billion, up more than 18 percent from $103.93 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $6.19 billion, up nearly 49 percent from $4.16 billion one year before. Amazon Web Services generated just over $16 billion in revenue during the six-month period.
Apple
CEO: Tim Cook
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $157.74
June 28, 2019 Close: $197.92
Change: +25.47%
With many of its products, including its flagship iPhone smartphones, manufactured in China, Apple has been seen as particularly vulnerable to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China.
In January CEO Tim Cook warned that revenue for the fiscal 2019 first quarter ended Dec. 29 would be below earlier guidance due to slower-than-expected upgrades to its new generation of iPhones, especially in China. The warning sent the price of Apple shares plummeting at the start of the year. But the stock has since recovered.
On July 25, after the period covered by this analysis, Apple struck a deal to acquire a majority of Intel's smartphone modem business for $1 billion.
For the first nine months ended June 29 of its fiscal 2019, Apple reported total sales of $196.13 billion, down more than 3 percent from $202.70 billion in the same period of fiscal 2018. Net income for the most recent nine months was $41.57 billion, down more than 8 percent from $45.41 billion one year earlier.
Seagate Technology
CEO: Dave Mosley
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $38.59
June 28, 2019 Close: $47.12
Change: +22.10%
For all of fiscal 2019 ended June 28, Seagate Technology reported revenue of $10.39 billion, down 7 percent from $11.18 billion in fiscal 2018. Net income for the year was $2.01 billion, up more than 70 percent from $1.18 billion one year earlier.
VMware
CEO: Pat Gelsinger
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $137.13
June 28, 2019 Close: $167.21
Change: +21.94%
VMware has been on a roll in the last year as it developed hybrid cloud services with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft and worked more closely with Dell to offer joint solutions such as the availability of VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC's VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure.
In June VMware struck a deal to acquire startup Avi Networks, a developer of software that delivers enterprise applications both in data centers and clouds, for an undisclosed sum.
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended May 3, VMware reported revenue of $2.27 billion, up 13 percent from $2.00 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. Net income for the quarter was $505 million, down 46 percent from $942 million one year before.
IBM
CEO: Virginia Rometty
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $113.67
June 28, 2019 Close: $137.90
Change: +21.32%
After losing nearly 26 percent of its value in 2018, IBM's stock rebounded in the first half of 2019, gaining back nearly all of that loss, and making additional gains in the second quarter.
On July 9, just after the period covered by this analysis, IBM completed its $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, a deal initially struck in October 2018.
For the first six months ended June 30, of 2019 IBM reported revenue of $37.34 billion, down 4.4 percent from $39.08 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the first six months, just under $4.09 billion, was virtually flat with the net income from one year earlier of just over $4.08 billion.
Eaton
CEO: Craig Arnold
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $68.66
June 28, 2019 Close: $83.28
Change: +21.29%
For the first six months of 2019, Eaton reported sales of $10.84 billion, up just under 1 percent from $10.74 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $1.16 billion, up 5.5 percent from $1.10 billion in the first half of 2018.
Splunk
CEO: Doug Merritt
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $104.85
June 28, 2019 Close: $125.75
Change: +19.93%
In February Splunk hired former SendGrid chief marketing officer Carrie Palin as Splunk's new CMO and senior vice president. In May the company hired former Amazon and Groupon finance executive Jason Child to be its new CFO, taking over from retiring CFO Dave Conte.
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended April 30, Splunk reported revenue of $424.9 million, up 36 percent from $311.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. But the company's loss for the quarter widened to $155.4 million compared with the $118.5 million loss one year earlier.
The company expects revenue for all of fiscal 2020 (ending Jan. 31, 2020) to be approximately $2.25 billion.
AT&T
CEO: Randall Stephenson
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $28.54
June 28, 2019 Close: $33.51
Change: +17.41%
In February a federal appeals court judge ruled that AT&T's $85.4 billion acquisition of global entertainment and media powerhouse Time Warner did not violate antitrust laws, allowing the acquisition to stand and rejecting a U.S. Justice Department appeal opposing the acquisition.
For the first six months of 2019, AT&T reported operating revenue of $89.78 billion, up 16.6 percent from $77.02 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $7.81 billion, down more than 20 percent from $9.79 billion one year before.
Lenovo Group
CEO: Yang Yuanqing
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $13.40
June 28, 2019 Close: $15.48
Change: +15.52%
For the fiscal 2020 first quarter ended June 30, Lenovo reported revenue of $12.51 billion, up 5 percent from $11.91 billion in the same quarter one year earlier. The company reported net income of $162 million, up 111 percent from $77 million one year earlier. The company said it saw accelerated sales growth (up 50 percent) to small and midsize businesses.
Symantec
CEO: Richard Hill
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $18.90
June 28, 2019 Close: $21.76
Change: +15.13%
On Feb. 12 Symantec acquired Luminate Security, a developer of software-defined perimeter technology. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
On May 9 Symantec president and CEO Greg Clark suddenly stepped down from all roles at the company, sending the company's stock plunging 15 percent. Former Novellus Systems CEO Richard Hill took over as interim president and CEO.
On Aug. 8, after the period covered by this analysis, chip manufacturer Broadcom struck a massive deal to acquire Symantec's $2.5 billion enterprise business—and the Symantec name—for $10.7 billion. That followed reports in July that Broadcom was looking to buy all of Symantec.
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended July 5, Symantec reported revenue of $1.25 billion, up nearly 9 percent from $1.16 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company reported net income of $26 million for the quarter compared with a $60 million loss one year earlier.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
CEO: Antonio Neri
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $13.21
June 28, 2019 Close: $14.95
Change: +13.17%
In May Hewlett Packard Enterprise struck a deal to acquire supercomputer maker Cray for $1.3 billion in a bid to boost its high-performance computing and artificial intelligence initiatives.
For the first six months ended April 30 of fiscal 2019, HPE reported revenue of $14.70 billion, down nearly 3 percent from $15.14 billion in the first six months of fiscal 2018.
Check Point Software Technologies
CEO: Gil Shwed
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $102.65
June 28, 2019 Close: $115.61
Change: +12.63%
For the first six months of 2019, Check Point Software Technologies reported revenue of $488.1 million, up 4.3 percent from $467.8 million in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $365.5 million, down 5 percent from $384.8 million in 2018.
Salesforce.com
CEOs: Marc Benioff and Keith Block
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $136.97
June 28, 2019 Close: $151.73
Change: +10.78%
On June 10 Salesforce inked a blockbuster deal to buy business analytics software developer Tableau Software for $15.7 billion. Salesforce said combining its CRM applications with Tableau's software would make Salesforce a leader in providing IT for digital transformation. (The acquisition closed Aug. 1.)
On August 8, after the period covered by this analysis, Salesforce struck a deal to acquire ClickSoftware, which develops applications for managing field service operations, for $1.35 billion.
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended April 30, Salesforce reported revenue of $3.74 billion, up more than 24 percent from $3.01 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. Net income for the quarter was $392 million, up 14 percent from $344 million one year earlier.
Fortinet
CEO: Ken Xie
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $70.43
June 28, 2019 Close: $76.83
Change: +9.09%
For the first six months of 2019, security technology developer Fortinet reported revenue of $994.3 million, up more than 18 percent from $840.3 million in the first half of 2018. The company reported a $20.2 million loss for the quarter and net income of $131.5 million for the six-month period, up nearly 45 percent from the $90.9 million in net income reported one year earlier.
Palo Alto Networks
CEO: Nikesh Arora
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $188.35
June 28, 2019 Close: $203.76
Change: +8.18%
Palo Alto Networks unveiled a deal on Feb. 19 to acquire cybersecurity startup Demisto for $560 million. The acquisition of Demisto, which develops security orchestration, automation and response technology, was completed March 28.
On May 29 the company struck deals to buy PureSec, a provider of serverless security, and Twistlock, a developer of container security technology. The acquisitions, completed in June and July, respectively, were made in a bid to extend Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma cloud security strategy.
For the fiscal 2019 third quarter ended April 30, Palo Alto Networks reported revenue of $726.6 million, up 28 percent from $567.7 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2018. The company reported a $20.2 million loss for the quarter, exactly one half the $40.4 million loss reported one year earlier.
Red Hat
CEO: James Whitehurst
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $175.64
June 28, 2019 Close: $187.76
Change: +6.90%
On July 9, just after the close of the period covered by this analysis, open-source software developer Red Hat was acquired by IBM for $34 billion ($190 per share). The acquisition, unveiled Oct. 28, 2018, was completed after the deal was approved by Red Hat’s shareholders and various regulatory bodies, including the European Commission.
On June 20, shortly before the acquisition was wrapped up, Red Hat reported that in its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended May 31 total revenue grew 15 percent to $934.1 million from $813.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. Net income for the quarter was $141.1 million, up nearly 25 percent from $113.2 million one year earlier.
Extreme Networks
CEO: Ed Meyercord
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $6.10
June 28, 2019 Close: $6.47
Change: +6.07%
On June 26 Extreme Networks struck a deal to acquire competitor Aerohive Networks for $210 million in a move to strengthen its position in cloud management, wireless networking and SD-WAN. The acquisition was completed on Aug. 9.
Extreme Networks’ stock recorded the biggest decline (more than 51 percent) in 2018 among all the vendors on our watch list. So the company wins kudos for getting back on the stock price growth track in 2019.
For all of fiscal 2019 ended June 30, Extreme Networks reported revenue of $995.8 million, up 1.3 percent from $983.1 million in fiscal 2018. The company reported a $25.9 million loss for the fiscal year compared with a $46.8 million loss one year earlier.
BlackBerry
CEO: John Chen
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $7.11
June 28, 2019 Close: $7.47
Change: +4.92%
BlackBerry's stock declined nearly 40 percent in 2018. While the company gained that back in the first quarter, the second quarter has been tough on the communications company's shares.
In November BlackBerry struck a deal to acquire cybersecurity company Cylance for $1.4 billion in a move to add security and AI capabilities to its platform. The acquisition was completed Feb. 21.
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended May 31, BlackBerry reported revenue of $247 million, down more than 3 percent from $255 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company reported net income of $51 million for the year compared with a $60 million loss one year earlier.
A June 29 MarketWatch article with the headline “BlackBerry violates SEC rules with use of non-standard metrics” said BlackBerry’s Q1 results report “led with and were dominated by non-standard numbers, putting the company at risk of an enforcement action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.” BlackBerry issued a statement saying the company’s “financial disclosures complies with U.S. securities laws that apply to [BlackBerry] as a Canadian foreign private issuer, including all rules regarding the use of non-GAAP measures.”
Alphabet
CEO: Larry Page
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $1,035.61
June 28, 2019 Close: $1,080.91
Change: +4.37%
On March 20 the European Commission hit Alphabet, Google's parent company, with an antitrust fine of $1.69 billion for what the commission determined was Google's anti-competitive online advertising practices. Google is appealing the finding.
On June Google’s Google Cloud business agreed to buy business analytics software developer Looker Data Sciences for $2.6 billion. On July 9 (after the period covered by this analysis) Google Cloud struck a deal to buy enterprise file storage service provider Elastifile for an undisclosed sum.
For the first six months ended June 30 of 2019, Alphabet reported revenue of $75.28 billion, up 18 percent from $63.80 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $16.60 billion, up nearly 32 percent from $12.60 billion one year earlier.
Dell Technologies
CEO: Michael Dell
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $48.87
June 28, 2019 Close: $50.80
Change: +3.95%
Dell Technologies went public on the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 28, 2018, at $46.00 per share and closed out the year at $48.87.
For the company’s fiscal 2020 first quarter ended May 3, Dell reported revenue of $21.91 billion, up 3 percent from $21.36 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2018. The company reported net income of $329 million for the quarter compared with a loss of $538 million one year before.
NetApp
CEO: George Kurian
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $59.67
June 28, 2019 Close: $61.70
Change: +3.40%
For all of fiscal 2019 ended April 26, NetApp reported revenue of $6.15 billion, up nearly 4 percent from $5.92 billion in fiscal 2018. Net income for the year was $1.17 billion, more than 10 times the $116 million in net income reported for fiscal 2018.
On Aug. 1, after the period covered by this analysis, NetApp shares plunged in value when the company said it expected a 17 percent drop in its first fiscal quarter 2020 revenue to between $1.22 billion and $1.23 billion. Two weeks later, however, the company reported revenue of $1.24 billion for the quarter, down more than 16 percent from $1.47 billion one year earlier, and net income of $103 million compared with net income of $283 million one year before.
Carbonite
CEO: Steve Munford
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $25.26
June 28, 2019 Close: $26.04
Change: +3.09%
On Feb. 7 Carbonite struck a deal to acquire endpoint security technology developer Webroot for $618.5 million. The acquisition closed March 26.
On July 25, after the period covered by this analysis, CEO Mohamad Ali stepped down to take a job with IDG after leading Carbonite for four and a half years. Chairman Steve Munford was named interim CEO.
For the first six months of 2019, Carbonite reported revenue of $202.7 million, up 43 percent from $141.8 million in the first half of 2018. But the company reported a $9.3 million loss for the six-month period compared with net income of $6.3 million for the first half of 2018.
Intel
CEO: Robert Swan
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $46.93
June 28, 2019 Close: $47.87
Change: +2.00%
On Jan. 31 Intel named Robert Swan, previously the company's CFO, to be the company's permanent chief executive. Swan had been interim CEO since Brian Krzanich resigned in June 2018.
On April 2 Intel named George Davis as executive vice president and CFO.
For the first six months of 2019 ended June 29, Intel reported revenue of $32.57 billion, down 1.4 percent from $33.03 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the first half of the year was $8.15 billion, down nearly 14 percent from $9.46 billion one year before.
Verizon Communications
CEO: Hans Vestberg
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $56.22
June 28, 2019 Close: $57.13
Change: +1.62%
In April Verizon said that it was rolling out 5G wireless service in Chicago and Minneapolis. The Ultra Wideband service was expanded to Atlanta, Detroit, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., in July.
For the first six months of 2019, Verizon reported operating revenue of $64.20 billion, up 0.4 percent from $63.98 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $9.23 billion, up 3.6 percent from $8.91 billion one year before.
HP Inc.
CEO: Dion Weisler
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $20.46
June 28, 2019 Close: $20.79
Change: +1.61%
HP Inc., like other PC manufacturers, was hard hit by a shortage of microprocessors that resulted in a 6.3 percent drop in PC shipments in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2019. HP Inc.'s U.S. PC shipments fell 4.7 percent in the quarter, a smaller decline than those recorded by rivals Lenovo and Dell.
For the first six months ended April 30 of fiscal 2019, HP reported revenue of $28.75 billion, up 0.8 percent from $28.52 billion in the first half of fiscal 2018. Net earnings for the first half of the fiscal year were $1.59 billion, down 47 percent from just under $3.00 billion one year before.
Juniper Networks
CEO: Rami Rahim
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $26.91
June 28, 2019 Close: $26.63
Change: -1.04%
On March 4 Juniper Networks unveiled a deal to acquire Mist Systems, a developer of cloud-managed wireless networks, for $405 million. The acquisition was completed April 3.
For the first six months of 2019, Juniper Networks reported revenue of $2.10 billion, down 8 percent from $2.29 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $77.3 million, down 49 percent from $150.6 million in the same period one year before.
Citrix Systems
CEO: David Henshall
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $102.46
June 28, 2019 Close: $98.14
Change: -4.22%
For the first six months of 2019, Citrix reported revenue of $1.47 billion, up 2 percent from $1.44 billion in the first half of 2018. Net income for the six-month period was $203.8 million, down nearly 19 percent from $251.1 million in the same period one year before.
FireEye
CEO: Kevin Mandia
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $16.21
June 28, 2019 Close: $14.81
Change: -8.64%
In May FireEye acquired cybersecurity startup Verodin for approximately $250 million in cash and stock.
For the first six months of 2019, FireEye reported revenue of $428.2 million, up 6.6 percent from $401.8 million in the first half of 2018. The company reported a loss of $142.7 million for the six-month period compared with a $144.7 million loss in the same period in 2018.
F5 Networks
CEO: Francois Locoh-Donou
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $162.03
June 28, 2019 Close: $145.63
Change: -10.12%
On March 11 F5 Networks unveiled an agreement to acquire Nginx, a provider of application delivery and security software, for $670 million in a move F5 described as creating a bridge between DevOps and NetOps. The acquisition was completed May 9.
For the first three quarters ended June 30 of its fiscal 2019, F5 Networks reported revenue of $1.65 billion, up 3.3 percent from $1.60 billion in the first three quarters of fiscal 2018. Net income for the three-quarter period was $332.9 million, up nearly 4 percent from $320.8 million in the same period one year earlier.
Commvault Systems
CEO: Sanjay Mirchandani
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $59.09
June 28, 2019 Close: $49.62
Change: -16.03%
On Feb. 5 Commvault named Sanjay Mirchandani as the company's new president and CEO and member of the board. Mirchandani was previously CEO of IT automation company Puppet. He replaced Robert Hammer, who retired under a succession plan announced in May 2018.
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended June 30, Commvault reported revenue of $162.2 million, down nearly 8 percent from $176.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company reported a loss of $6.8 million for the quarter compared with a $8.6 million loss one year earlier.
CenturyLink
CEO: Jeff Storey
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $15.15
June 28, 2019 Close: $11.76
Change: -22.38%
CenturyLink has been aggressively expanding its fiber footprint, recently announcing that its intercity network has grown by 3.5 million fiber miles, connecting 50 major cities.
For the first six months of 2019, CenturyLink reported operating revenue of $11.23 billion, down 5.3 percent from $11.85 billion in the first half of 2018. The communications service provider reported a loss of $5.79 billion for the six-month period compared with net income of $407 million in the same period one year before.
Pivotal Software
CEO: Rob Mee
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $16.35
June 28, 2019 Close: $10.56
Change: -35.41%
Pivotal, provider of a cloud-native software and development tools platform, went public on April 20, 2018.
In August, after the period covered by this analysis, Pivotal and VMware—both majority-owned by Dell Technologies—filed a document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing that they were discussing a possible VMware acquisition of Pivotal at $15 per share.
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended May 3, Pivotal reported revenue of $185.7 million, up more than 19 percent from $155.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company reported a loss of $31.7 million for the quarter compared with a $32.5 million loss one year earlier.
Nutanix
CEO: Dheeraj Pandey
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $41.59
June 28, 2019 Close: $25.94
Change: -37.63%
In April Nutanix, a pivotal player in the market for hyper-converged infrastructure systems, formed a strategic alliance with Hewlett Packard Enterprise with the goal of challenging Dell EMC and VMware’s market-share leadership in servers and hyper-converged infrastructure.
For the first three quarters ended April 30 of its fiscal 2019, Nutanix reported revenue of $936.3 million, up 10 percent from $851.7 million in the first three quarters of fiscal 2018. The company recorded a $426.8 million loss for the three-quarter period compared with a $209.8 million loss in the first three quarters of fiscal 2018.
Netgear
CEO: Patrick Lo
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $52.03
June 28, 2019 Close: $25.29
Change: -51.39%
For the first half of 2019, Netgear reported revenue of $479.9 million, down 4 percent from $500.5 million in the first six months of 2018. The company reported net income of $13.7 million for the six-month period compared with net income of $360,000 in the first half of 2018.
Cloudera
CEO: Martin Cole
Dec. 31, 2018 Close: $11.06
June 28, 2019 Close: $5.26
Change: -52.44%
Big data software developer Cloudera’s stock lost more than half its value in the first six months of 2019, putting it at the bottom of our technology stock roundup.
On June 5 CEO Tom Reilly announced that he would retire at the end of July, news that sent Cloudera's stock plummeting. Board chairman Martin Cole is serving as interim CEO until a replacement is hired.
On Jan. 3 Cloudera completed its merger with rival Hortonworks and has been working through the challenge of integrating the two companies' operations and rationalizing their combined product portfolios. While Cloudera's shares rose to $19.05 immediately following the October announcement of the merger, the company's stock price steadily declined through the rest of the year and through the first half of 2019.
Industry watchers have been bearish on Cloudera's prospects given that the market for Hadoop-based big data software hasn't taken off as some expected. The announcement of Reilly's retirement came just a week after rival MapR Technologies disclosed that it was struggling financially. (MapR’s technology and intellectual assets were acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in August.)
For its fiscal 2020 first quarter (ended April 30) Cloudera reported revenue of $187.5 million, up 81 percent from $103.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company reported a $103.1 million loss for the quarter compared with a $52.3 million loss in the same period one year before.