TECH STOCKS: Yelp, 3D Systems Stand Out As Tech Stocks Slump

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 almost 10%, to $68.26 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, was also down by almost 10% at $50.74 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 more than 17% to $5.69 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 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 60 points, or 1.3%, to 4.403 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was down by almost 2%.

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