Some of the most popular tech stocks with retail investors were among the sector’s biggest losers during a savage first quarter (Q1) of 2022, racking up large double-digit losses.
Names like Facebook-owner Meta Platforms, PayPal, and Netflix all lost more than 30% of their value in a tech stock rout in Q1. Pandemic lockdown winners such as Zoom Communications and Moderna also fell sharply, joining more speculative tech firms like electric vehicles maker Lucid and Okta, the cyber security company.
But the sell-off extended to established big names too, with Intuit, Autodesk, Adobe and Advanced Micro Devices posting falls of 20% or more.
FOUR-IN-FIVE TECH STOCKS DOWN
These hefty losses compare to a rough 10% fall for the Nasdaq 100, the index of the biggest 100 companies listed on the US Nasdaq exchange. The index declined from 16,320.08 to end Q1 at 14,838.49.
| 10 biggest Q1 losers | |
| PayPal | -38.7% |
| Netflix | -37.8% |
| Zoom Communications | -36.3% |
| Meta Platforms | -33.9% |
| Align Technology | -33.7% |
| Lucid | -33.3% |
| Okta | -32.7% |
| Moderna | -32.2% |
| Pinduoduo | -31.2% |
| DocuSign | -29.7% |
| Source: Investing.com | |
Just 20% of the Nasdaq 100’s constituents registered gains in Q1 2022, led by big data company Splunk and gaming firm Activision Blizzard, the subject of a $68.7 billion takeover by Microsoft.
Microsoft shares were the worst performing of the tech giants, falling 8% during Q1, although the other mega tech stocks managed to navigate the sell-off with less drama. While chip maker Nvidia lost 7%, Google-owner Alphabet, Amazon and Apple posted relatively modest declines of between 3.5% and 1.5%.
