LinkedIn, Tableau Specter Haunts Apple Chips, Security Stocks
Tech stock declines piled on Monday, snowballing after badly received quarterly reports last week from the likes of LinkedIn ( LNKD ) and Tableau ( DATA ), whose stocks sheared off. Apple ( AAPL ) supplier NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ), GoPro ( GPRO ) supplier Ambarella ( AMBA ) and cybersecurity bigwig Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) all were down Monday following a brutal last week, among other decliners. IBD’s 26-company Computer Software-Security industry group was collectively down 6.9% in afternoon trading. The 41-company Electronics-Semiconductor Fabless industry group was down 2.7%. Ahead of the closing bell on the stock market today , Palo Alto stock was down 9%. Shares of CyberArk Software ( CYBR ), FireEye ( FEYE ) and Proofpoint ( PFPT ) were down about 9%, 9.5% and 10%, respectively. Shares of NXP and Ambarella were down 9.5% and 6.4%, respectively. Apple suppliers Avago Technologies ( AVGO ) and Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) both fell more than 5% while Cirrus Logic ( CRUS ) and Qorvo ( QRVO ) were each down about 2%. Only a handful of stocks escaped the high-tech sell-off — a continuation of a Friday deluge that saw LinkedIn stock lose nearly half its value on Wall Street after the professional networker announced a low 2016 forecast. Compounding the pressure, analysts see Big Data analytics software maker Tableau losing market share to Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ). Tableau, too, guided to current-quarter sales and earnings that missed the consensus expectation. Security vendors lost 7.4% and fabless chip makers closed down 4% on Friday. NXP Halves Apple Exposure NXP’s plunge looks incongruous after the Apple chip supplier’s Q4 beat last week, but comes on a day when techs are broadly down, and amid an acquisition. In the long run, picking up Freescale is making NXP an automotive powerhouse — sales in that segment bounded 45% year over year to $422 million. The Freescale deal also halves NXP’s Apple iPhone exposure as the smartphone giant deals with floundering demand. Apple chip suppliers Cirrus Logic, Qorvo, Qualcomm ( QCOM ) and InvenSense ( INVN ) recently issued March-quarter views that lagged the consensus . At least six analysts this month have rated NXP stock a buy, including two on Monday. A Jefferies analyst boosted his price target on NXP stock to 112 from 107. Ambarella stock sank as GoPro stock rocketed 10% as of Monday afternoon on its partnership with Microsoft. GoPro and Microsoft will partner on a patent-licensing agreement for file storage and other system technologies. “This agreement with GoPro shows the incredible breadth of technology sharing enabled through patent transactions,” Microsoft’s technology licensing president, Nick Psyhogeos, said in a press release. Last week, GoPro stock wiped out after missing Wall Street’s Q4 earnings views and guiding well below consensus Q1 expectations. Shares closed down nearly 9% on Feb. 4. But chip maker Ambarella missed the scrum and pulled ahead 5.1% that day. At least seven analysts cut their price targets on GoPro stock following the Q4 report. But at least three reiterated a buy rating, and another boosted his price target. Ambarella tried distancing itself from GoPro during its December quarter, instead highlighting the company’s expansion into drones and home security.