It’s been a busy year in the tech space with the majority of the players recording impressive gains at the expense of others that recorded substantial declines. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) remain some of the best-performing stock for the year at the expense of Twitter and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which continue to receive a beating from Wall Street.
Overall, 2014 was the year of the old guard companies according to Barron’s Tiernan Ray, which saw their share price grow by double digit as investors turned their attention to them. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), for instance, grew its cash balance in the year to become one of the best in the space with its stock rallying by 20% from levels achieved in 2013. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), on the other hand, is up by 24% against NASDAQ’s average of 14% with EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) following suit with a gain of 20%.
The ongoing growth of the cloud was expected to offer the biggest threat to the old guard, but contrary to opinion, most of the players devised ways of offsetting the imminent threat. Cisco impressive run this year is expected to steam into 2015 where it is poised to generate $48.6 billion in revenue, 3% above analyst estimates.
EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) prospects heading into 2015 have been bolstered by the fact that it might divest its 80% stake in software vendor VMware and be in line to generate up to 5.5% in growth. The move is expected to give the stock higher valuation. Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) has already highlighted plans to split itself into two having surged by 43% this year as the turnaround plan continues to gain momentum. Joining the wave of divestitures is Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), which has announced plans to divest its data storage unit with Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) also announcing plans to take public its payment unit PayPal.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) made a comeback this year despite losing great deal on its failure to manufacture chips for smartphones. The stock has rallied by 40% this year a rally that started in 2013 on the refresh of PC’s. Intel continues to command the highest payout in the space having returned the most profits to investors at 128%. The company has also bolstered its dividend yield to 2.7% an increase of 6%.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has also enjoyed an impressive year at the back of releasing iPhone 6 that has allowed it generate a tremendous amount of cash flow; reaching milestone of $50 billion against analyst estimate of $46 billion. The stock is up by 10%
Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) remains one of the biggest flops for the year seen by its monthly active user numbers stagnating at the 284 million mark. The stock is also down by 42% with increased concerns over its long-term prospect. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) its fierce rival has rallied by 46%.
