S&P 500: These Are The 12 Worst Bear Market Tech Stocks You Can Own

It’s impossible for tech investors to ignore the pain in the sector anymore. Even S&P 500 tech giants are getting dragged down.

Twelve information technology stocks in the S&P 1500, including S&P 500 members PayPal (PYPL), Enphase Energy (ENPH) and Adobe (ADBE), are now down 60% or more from the time Nasdaq Composite peaked and started falling into a bear market on Nov. 20, 2021. Following the Nasdaq’s 2% drop on Monday, the tech-heavy index is now off 21.6% in the bear — and worsening.

Smaller firms are taking the brunt of the beat-down. But seeing tech giants increasingly crash, too, underscores that this is a problem for the whole S&P 500 sector.

“It does raise a serious question … that millions of investors (myself included) are grappling with: If you have the misfortune of owning some of these stocks and are sitting on big losses — in many cases, exceeding 50% in just the last four months — what should you do?” says Whitney Tilson, strategist at Empire Financial Research.

S&P 500 Tech Stock Pain Worsens

Tech stocks’ rise during the bull market was awesome. But now the undoing of it is nearly as breathtaking.

The Nasdaq Composite Index is falling fast. Its now definitely past the 20% downside drop from its high to put it into bear market territory. Just this year, the Nasdaq is down 19.6%. And that’s bleeding into some popular technology stock ETFs, too.

The Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) is now down 18.7% just this year. And that’s despite being tilted toward the largest S&P 500 stocks that have dropped less than smaller ones on a percentage basis. The more broad iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW) is down more than 20% this year. And it’s off more than 22% from the Nasdaq’s Nov. 19 high. And get this: Nearly two-thirds of the 199 S&P 1500 technology companies are now in a 10% correction — or worse.

But what kind of tech stocks are paying the most dearly in this bear?

Worst Tech Stocks To Own: A.I. Headache

If you’re looking for the worst place to be in tech investing during this bear, look no further than Cerence.

The mid-sized maker of artificial intelligence technology used in mobile applications is a catastrophe in this bear. Shares are down more than 70% in this Nasdaq bear. That’s a larger drop than by any other tech stock in the S&P 1500. Investors are starting to push back on the enormous valuations they were paying for tech, especially when the sky-high projections aren’t paying off.

Analysts think Cerence’s profit will fall by more than 23% this year to $1.94 a share. Meanwhile, revenue at the company is expected to drop 4% to $371 million this year. That’s just not worth paying up for by investors bracing for higher interest rates.

Getting Hurt With S&P 500 Tech Stocks, Too

But again, what’s noteworthy now is that the brunt of tech’s pain is spreading to the S&P 500 giants, too.

PayPal, a tech in the S&P 500, is a case in point. Shares of the digital payment company are now down 50% in this Nasdaq bear market. They’re down nearly 49% just this year. And there’s little reason to see any fundamental support. Analysts now think the company’s profit will only inch up 1% this year to $4.65 a share.

And the list of battered S&P 500 technology stocks is only lengthening as the selling intensifies. Alternative energy firm Enphase, still part of the S&P 500 technology sector, is now down a crushing 41% in this Nasdaq bear. And Adobe, one of the superstars of the bull thanks to its suite of software, is off more than 40% from the Nasdaq peak. The company’s market value cratered to just $196 billion, landing it behind slower growing consumer companies like Coca-Cola (KO) and Costco Wholesale (COST).

With so much pain in S&P 500 tech, nervous investors may only wonder how much worse might it still get?

“While some of the most popular growth stocks are trading at much less crazy multiples, there’s nothing to stop them from going down a lot more,” Tilson said.

Worst Stocks In This Tech Bear So Far

S&P 1500 stocks down 40% or more from Nasdaq’s Nov. 19, 2021 high

Company	Symbol	Index	Stock % drop in bear
Cerence	(CRNC)	S&P 400 (mid-sized)	-70.9%
EPAM	(EPAM)	S&P 500 (large)	-66.9
8×8	(EGHT)	S&P 600 (small)	-50.2
PayPal	(PYPL)	S&P 500	-50.0
LivePerson	(LPSN)	S&P 600	-49.9
Ceridian HCM Holding	(CDAY)	S&P 500	-48.3
Digital Turbine	(APPS)	S&P 400	-48.0
3D Systems	(DDD)	S&P 600	-43.8
Calix	(CALX)	S&P 400	-42.8
Enphase Energy	(ENPH)	S&P 500	-41.1
Autodesk	(ADSK)	S&P 500	-41.5
Adobe	(ADBE)	S&P 500	-40.2