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Tech Winners & Losers: Google

Priya Ganapati

Tech stocks were mostly down Friday after Google missed analysts' profit estimates for its second quarter and Microsoft offered a weak outlook for the current quarter.

Shares of Google(GOOG) fell $53.03, or 9.9%, to $480.41 after it reported lower-than-expected EPS for the second quarter. Google acknowledged a slowing economy and investors realized it is not immune to the current environment.

Google earned $1.25 billion, compared with $925.1 million, a year ago. Adjusted for certain items, EPS was $4.63 a share, which was short of analysts' estimates of $4.74 a share. Second-quarter revenue climbed 39% from a year ago to $5.37 billion, but grew just 3% from the first quarter. Adjusted for traffic acquisition costs, revenue came in at $3.9 billion, which was above analysts' consensus expectation of $3.87 billion.

Microsoft(MSFT) lost $1.88, or 6.8%, to $25.64 after it offered weak outlook for the current quarter. Microsoft also forecast increased spending and uncertainty over the state of its online operations and continued tussle to acquire Yahoo(YHOO).

AMD(AMD) plunged 12.6%, or 67 cents, to $4.63 after it reported another huge loss and CEO Hector Ruiz stepped down effective immediately. He has been replaced by President and Chief Operating Officer Dirk Meyer.

AMD posted a loss of $1.19 billion, or $1.96 a share, vs. a loss of $600 million, or $1.09 cents, at this time last year. Analysts were expecting a loss of 52 cents a share, excluding certain charges. Revenue was $1.38 billion, up 0.5% year over year, and below the average analyst expectation of $1.45 billion.

Apple(AAPL) shed $5.46, or 3.2%, to $166.35 ahead of the company's third-quarter earnings report Monday after the close of trading. Analysts are expecting Apple to report earnings of $1.08 a share on revenue of $7.36 billion for the quarter. For the fourth quarter, Apple is expected to post EPS of $1.24, or $8.32 billion.

Online advertising campaigns provider ValueClick(VCLK) continued to lose ground after it slashed its forecast for fiscal 2008, citing weakness in the U.S. economy. Shares of ValueClick were down 61 cents, or 5.5%, to $10.40. Analysts at Citigroup and Stanford research also downgraded the stock Friday to hold from buy.

IBM(IBM) gained $2.54, or 2%, to $129.07 after it charged past Wall Street's expectations for the second quarter and raised its earnings outlook for the current fiscal year.

Net income for the quarter was up 22.3% to $2.76 billion, or $1.98 a share. Revenue rose 12.8% to $26.8 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been expecting revenue of $25.92 billion and earnings of $1.82 a share, excluding charges.

Satellite radio company Sirius'(SIRI) shares were up 14 cents, or 6.7%, to $2.24 after reports suggested that Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein may be ready to back the planned merger between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio(XMSR). The move is likely to bring Sirius and XM closer to completing the deal that was first announced in February 2007.