By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
Earnings results fail to inspire investors as sector is awash in
red
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)--Online local-information company
Yelp Inc. and 3D Systems Corp. were among the big decliners in tech
stocks Thursday as investors sent the sector into the red along
with the broad market over concerns about some U.S. economic data
and fears that Argentina may go into default.
Yelp (YELP) fell more than 11%, to close at $67.19 a share,
after the company late Wednesday reported a quarterly profit for
the first time since going public more than two years ago. Yelp
said that for its second quarter, it earned $2.7 million, or 4
cents a share, on $88.7 million in revenue.
However, Yelp also said it added just 5,900 local business
accounts during the quarter, while analysts were for looking for
about 7,700 new such accounts. During the year-ago period, Yelp
added 6,800 local-ad accounts. Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler
noted that it was the first time in the last six quarters when
Yelp's new local advertisers didn't rise, and cut his rating on the
company's stock to market perform from outperform.
3D Systems (DDD), which makes 3-D printing technology products,
fell more than 10% to close at $50.13 a share. On Wednesday, the
company reported second-quarter earnings of 16 cents a share on
$151.5 million in revenue, while analysts had forecast a profit of
18 cents a share on sales of $161.9 million.
3D systems also estimated its third-quarter earnings would be in
a range of 73 cents to 85 cents a share, while analysts had
forecast a profit of 81 cents a share.
Mobile-device game company Glu Mobile Inc. (GLUU) slumped by
almost 19% to end the day at $5.61 a share. Glu Mobile is the
publisher of the "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" game, and on Wednesday
said its third-quarter gross margins are expected to fall to 58%
from 69% in the second quarter.
Other tech stocks closing in the red included Apple Inc. (AAPL),
Micron Technology Inc. (MU), Facebook Inc. (FB) and Amazon.com Inc.
(AMZN).
Adding to the day's negativity were concerns that the U.S.
Federal Reserve may consider raising short-term interest rates, and
Argentina failing to make a debt payment that puts the country in
position to go into default.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell 93 points, or
2%, to close at 4,369 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
(SOX) ended the day down by more than 22%.
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