Yelp, Angie’s List stand out in tech action
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Technology stocks edged up Wednesday, propelled by gains from social media-related stocks such as Yelp Inc. and Angie’s List Inc..
Yelp shares soared 22.5% to close up to $22.37 as the lockup period expired for more than 52 million shares of the online-review and recommendation company’s post-IPO stock.
An investor told The Wall Street Journal that the share gains may be the result of “short-covering,” as investors who bet on the stock taking a hit with the lockup expiration were left scrambling to cover their positions.
“The shorts got caught with their pants down today, plain and simple,” Seth Setrakian of First New York Securities told the Journal.
Meanwhile, Angie’s List added 13.2% to close up to $10.22, after Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein raised his rating to outperform from perform.
In a research note, Helfstein wrote he upgraded Angie’s List on valuation levels, and that the stock’s volatility should lessen in the wake of the Aug. 14 expiration of the initial lockup period on shares.
Google Inc. shares rose 1.6% to $688.01. According to a Bloomberg report, the company was looking to sell the Motorola Mobility business unit that makes set-top boxes and other home-networking gear.
Samsung Electronics, which recently lost a patent-infringement case against Apple Inc. , prepared to show off an updated version of its new, Android-based Galaxy Note smartphone at a conference in Germany.
At that same conference, Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. unveiled a new tablet device and a slate of new smartphones. Sony saw its U.S.-traded shares rise 2.1% to close at $11.73. Read more about Sony’s latest mobile efforts.
Online-radio company Pandora Media Inc. slipped 1% to end at $10.08, ahead of the company’s fiscal second-quarter results, due after the market close. Analysts surveyed by FactSet estimate Pandora will report a loss, excluding one-time items, of 4 cents a share, on revenue of $100.4 million. See the latest news on Pandora.
Gains also came from eBay Inc. , Hewlett-Packard Co. and International Business Machines Corp.
The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 4 points, or 0.1%, to close at 3,081. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index both eked out small gains.
Decliners included online social-gaming firm Zynga Inc. , which was down 4% to close at $2.96. Late Tuesday, Zynga’s chief creative officer, Mike Verdu, said he was leaving to start a new company. Verdu is the second top executive to depart Zynga, after operating chief John Schappert left earlier this month in an executive shake-up.
Shares of Groupon also shed 1.4% to close at $4.31. The daily-deal site’s stock hit a new 52-week low of $4.26.
Nokia Corp.’s U.S.-traded shares fell 4.3% to close at $2.90. Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu wrote in a research note that a recent run-up in Nokia’s share price is “largely unwarranted” in the wake of Apple’s patent-lawsuit victory over Samsung.
