HEXUS.sharewatch.
It's been nearly 14 months since we took a look at the stock
prices of some of the leading tech companies whose products and
services directly affect the PC industry. It makes for some interesting
reading, that's for sure. Here's the full .sharewatch list:
| Company | Listing | Share Price ($US) as at 15/09/06 | Share Price ($US) as at 05/12/07 | 14-month change | Market capitalisation ($bn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD | AMD | 27.12 | 9.25 | -65.9% | 5.13 |
| Apple | AAPL | 74.13 | 179.81 | 142.6% | 157.43 |
| Dell | DELL | 21.60 | 23.60 | 9.3% | 52.77 |
| GOOG | 406.51 | 684.16 | 68.3% | 214.03 | |
| IBM | IBM | 82.22 | 106.63 | 29.7% | 146.93 |
| Intel | INTC | 19.83 | 26.31 | 32.7% | 153.83 |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 25.98 | 32.77 | 26.1% | 306.58 |
| NVIDIA | NVDA | 29.06 | 31.97* | 65%* | 17.76 |
The share price can be considered a rough-and-ready indicator of a company's fortunes, as perceived by the investment market as a whole. Sentiments can change at the drop of a hat, of course, but a 14-month period takes into account the strength of the entire market - NASDAQ in this instance - and the performance of various companies within that market.
At the time of writing, the NASDAQ index stood at 2,620, compared to 2,200 in September 2006, so any company that exhibits a >19 per cent growth in that time can be said to have outperformed the market as a whole.
AMD's financial plight and uncertain future is reflected in a price-drop of almost two-thirds of its September 2006 value. The market capitalisation figure - which represents the value of all outstanding shares multiplied by the current share price - takes the ATI acquisition into account. Still, however, we see that AMD is a small, small fish in a pond that's littered with $100bn+ caps.
HEXUS has commented on AMD's beleaguered fortunes and doesn't see it getting much better in the short term. The financial markets and experts tend to agree with this sentiment, too. We don't see the stock price moving significantly upwards in the next six months.
Apple can do no wrong, it seems, with successful and slick executions of the iPhone, new iPods, and nascent iTunes service. Such is the enthusiasm for the Steve Jobs' fruity company, it's now valued at more than Intel and Dell - and some 30x AMD.
Steve Jobs must be smiling at Michael Dell's ill-advised comments in 1997 when asked how he would 'fix' Apple: "What would I do?" Mr. Dell said to an audience of several thousand information technology managers. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders". Here's looking at you and your company that's barely worth a third of Apple's latest market cap, Mike!
Long-established industry heavyweights Intel and IBM continue to execute with proficiency, and their multi-faceted business units tend to weather short-term storms well. Microsoft, too, has had a good year, releasing Windows Vista and selling almost 100 million licenses to date. You could, of course, always 'upgrade' to Windows XP, we only half-jokingly comment.
Contrary to the jolts experienced by AMD, mainly self-inflicted, NVIDIA's last year has been, outwardly at least, a paradigm of smoothness and stability, releasing product on schedule and featuring little of the internal wrangling that has made senior AMD execs not look too far past their next pay cheques. The current stock price's increase takes the three-for-two split on August 9th, 2007, into account.
We wait to see how it fares once Intel releases a range of discrete graphics cards. Until then, though, we see NVIDIA maintaining position as a solid company with timely releases.
A year is a long time in the tech world. Most major players have benefited from the increased confidence shown by investors for companies that push the envelope of what's possible. The major casualty, clearly, has been AMD/ATI.
