This week in tech stock: Why Yahoo is on the rise after 'disappointing' Q2

Earnings reports for the second quarter dominated tech news this week, with companies like Intel, Microsoft, and Google holding investor calls and issuing detailed spreadsheets on what went right — and wrong — over the past three months.

Needless to say, the news affected investors’ confidence. When the Google reports disappointed expectations, stock prices dipped accordingly.

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Let’s take a look at stock prices for companies who reported Q2 results this week:

Hardware/mobile companies

Five companies involved in hardware had their earnings calls this week.

• AMD beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter, but it still was operating at a loss thanks to sluggish PC sales.
• Again, slow PC sales led to Intel missing revenue targets for Q2.
• IBM beat expectations with a 6 percent income climb, but revenue was down.
• Nokia showed a bright spot with burgeoning Windows phone sales, but the company still reported an operating loss.
• Verizon was alone in turning in a very strong quarter, showing no signs of slowing down at more than 100 smartphone and tablet connections.

The takeaway: You probably already know this, but mobile devices are where it’s at. And while Windows Phone is slowly picking up steam, it’s not yet a contender, especially in the smartphone-saturated U.S.

Here’s a look at the stock movement this week for these companies, shown as percentage change:

Software companies

We also had four software companies reporting revenues this week. (We were busy bees over here, y’all.)

• Microsoft’s Q4 earnings disappointed, particularly the $900 million loss the company took for its written-off Surface RT tablets.
• Google missed analysts’ expectations. While revenues were significantly up, profitability was slightly down.
• In eBay’s quarterly call, the shining star was PayPal, which showed no signs of weakness amid the onslaught of startups like Stripe and Square.
• Yahoo’s earnings were still strong but showed a slight year-over-year decline.

Dotcom’s oldsters were still mixed, but we’re seeing Yahoo as a front runner for the Comeback Kid title — and investors apparently feel the same way. Overall, under CEO Marissa Mayer’s leadership, Yahoo has had one of its best years yet and more acquisitions and gorgeous product roll-outs than you can shake a stick at.

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