Although all the tech indices we follow had a great 2012 – See The Longer Vi
ew– the month of December was unremarkable as can be seen in the table. The last few weeks has been dominated by the Fiscal Cliff which maybe be a Fiscal Precipice, Fiscal Slope or Fiscal Flatline – who knows? As I write this review, it looks like a better name would be Fiscal Fudge. Will this be enough to reassure the markets when they open on Wednesday?
In Dec 12, I wrote an article – Diversity of Performance– where I highlighted that there had been a bigger spread of share price performance between the Top Quartile and Bottom Quartile on NASDAQ than in any year I had ever known. Averages are becoming meaningless. The top performers this year have really motored. For example, UK HQed Quindell rose 127% in 2012. BTW – They get the award for most mentioned company on HotViews. Their PR machine is truly mega! Xchanging rose 93% as new management ‘swept in’. Personally (I have been a shareholder since their 2004 IPO) I was very pleased with the 69% rise at Sanderson. Indeed they ended 2012 back at their IPO price of 50p – a day I never thought would arrive. Although Ch Chris Winn believes ‘we ain’t seen nothing yet…”. He must now be rather pleased with his 10m share purchase @ 20p two year back!
Wandisco was a rare new UK HQed IPO onto AIM @ 180p in June 12. They ended the year up 144% at 440p. Let's hope this spurs others to list in the UK - and for investors to back them too.
On an international basis, AOL rose 96% in 2012 on the back of sales of its patents and a feeling that they had at last hit on a business model that worked. CSC soared (recovered?) 69% after the appointment of Mike Lawrie. If he can do for CSC what he did for Misys…Salesforce.com rose 66% in 2012 – although we are increasingly dubious about their business model. I must report that I have recently banked my CRM profits and sold my shares as I have got uneasy about their ability to make profits in the future. Choosing companies like these in the Top Quartile of performance would have achieved growth of 50%+
Conversely, if your picks were in the Bottom Quartile, you’d be sitting on a 20%+ losses. Worst performers were SocialGo – down 74% or Promethean World - down 69%. Amongst the global stocks, every HotViews reader will guess that HP got the wooden spoon – down 45% in 2012. Despite a recent rally, Facebook still ended the year down 30% from its $38 IPO. Dell was off 31%, Nokia off 18% and even Infosys (See Infosys lowers guidance – changes CFO) suffered a rare 18% fall.
Eligible TechMarketView subscription service clients will be able to see a more detailed analysis of the performance of UK listed software and IT services companies in the year-end edition of IndustryViews Quoted Sector out soon.