As a group, the stocks of Orange County’s public companies had a terrific run in recent weeks, outpacing the major market indices. But many of those stocks came crashing down to earth in the past week.
Between Feb. 11 and March 9, the Roth Capital Partners Billion-Dollar Club, a collection of 17 OC stocks with market caps of $1 billion or more, rose 16.6%. The Roth Capital Partners OC 100 Index, a collection of 100 smaller OC stocks, similarly shot up 17.1% for the period.
The Billion Dollar Club and OC 100 during this time easily out-performed their respective peer groups, the S & P; 500 (down 1.1%) and the Russell 2000 (up 11.8%). Meanwhile, the standby blue-chip index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, was down 5.8% in the four-week span.
The two OC indices even did slightly better than the much-ballyhooed Nasdaq, which was up 14.8% in that span.
Many of the same factors driving the Nasdaq higher also pushed up the OC indices. For example, Broadcom Corp., a major factor in the share-weighted Billion Dollar Club, rose 37%, while other tech-related stocks,QLogic Corp., Emulex Corp., Powerwave Technologies and Quest Software,all increased by more than 70%.
But, also mirroring the Nasdaq, the OC stock indices were hit hard in the past week. The Nasdaq closed Thursday down 9.2% from a week earlier. The Billion Dollar Club fell 10.2%, and the OC 100 was off 3.3%.
The Dow? It came back strongly, rising 6.2%% for the five trading days.
Broadcom, QLogic, Emulex and Powerwave all had declines over 10%.
These volatile stocks wrenched the holdings of Orange County’s billionaire technology architects in a roller coaster whirl of gains and losses over the last week.
After jointly gaining more than $1.26 billion in a single day March 10, Quest Software Inc. top dogs Vinny Smith and David Doyle have lost $870 million,$630 million for Smith’s 42% stake and $240 million for Doyle’s 16% stake (see accompanying report).
And the area’s best-known entrepreneurial twosome, Broadcom Corp. founders Henry Nicholas and Henry Samueli, lost more than $1 billion each last week. Still, the pair won’t find themselves in the poor house any time soon. With 17% stakes in their company, each held more than $6.6 billion in Broadcom stock, which recovered some by Thursday’s close.
Meanwhile, Buy.com wunderkind Scott Blum may have lost his billionaire status as his 48% stake in the e-tailer fell from $15 per share to $13.25; the stock has slid from a high of 33 reached shortly after its IPO last month. Blum’s stake in the company, which he left last year, was worth a mere $852.3 million as of last Thursday. Blum, however, has other holdings beside Buy.com.
Last week’s knockback notwithstanding, the Billion Dollar Club has done spectacularly since last October, doubling at a time when the S & P; 500 Index has remained the same. n
