As we bid adieu to 2014 and step into 2015, the stock market and the key sectors warrant introspection. Amid macroeconomic uncertainties and global market upheavals, the sector that stood out in 2014 was technology. This is evident by a substantially better performance by NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector (NDXT) index which rallied 25.1% year-to-date, exceeding Dow Jones (8.8%), Nasdaq (14.1%) and the S&P 500 (12%) (SPX).
In addition, the global MSCI World Information Technology Index rose around 17% year-to-date and many of the companies listed under it outperformed the index. One such company that has been calling the shots in the Tech sector is Apple Inc. (AAPL – Analyst Report). The company has grown to become a cult technology stock to own in the recent times and a bullish market has led the stock to gain around 40.4% year-to-date, superseding market returns so far generated by any of the indices this year.
The launch of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus this year not only brought the company on par with the major phablet makers like Samsung, HTC and LG but also set a record of selling over 10 million units in the first weekend. As a result, Apple's market capitalization reached a record $700 billion mark in November, representing a major milestone in its history.
While Apple is still basking in the glory of iPhone 6 and looking forward to the mega launch of iWatch in 2015, it is yet to be a major gainer in terms of market performance in 2014.
3 Better-than-Apple Tech Performers
It appears that several companies have gained significant momentum and caught investors' attention with returns considerably higher than that of Apple. We picked three such stocks that stood out in terms of market returns and performance in 2014. Also, the fundamentals and favorable Zacks Rank of these stocks signal their outperformance in 2015 as well.
Facebook, Inc. (FB – Analyst Report): One of the revolutionary changes that took place in the recent times in the technology space was the emergence of social networking sites. The rapid growth in online social hubs aka networking website transformed the trend in social media and Facebook remains the front-runner in this genre. It is, therefore, no surprise that Facebook surpassed its biggest competitors Twitter, Inc. (TWTR – Analyst Report) and LinkedIn Corporation and also outshone giants like Apple, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM –Analyst Report), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT – Analyst Report) and Oracle (ORCL –Analyst Report) in terms of market share gain.
