Tech startups take larger hit than overall market

Major IPOs from the past five yrs unravel, with GoPro and TrueCar losing a third of their value

In the last five years, high-flying tech startups were all the rage as the place to find growth and upside. Now the decision to invest in some of the tech startup IPOs in the last five years seems questionable, as their performance grows uglier every day. 

What's more disconcerting is that they've seem to take a bigger hit than the overall market. 

Both the Dow Jones and The Nasdaq had good days on Friday, up $210.83, 1.33 percent, and $119.12, or 2.66 percent, respectively, but they're still down significantly on the year. Since the start of trading on January 4, the Dow Jones has declined 7.64 percent to 16,093.51, while the Nasdaq has lost 8.31 percent. 

But a look at many Internet companies that have gone public in the last five years, shows a select few have been outliers, staying relatively above water despite the market turmoil: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yelp. On the other hand, other startups - consumer Internet and enterprise - are not only down worse than the overall market, they continue to slide below their IPO prices.  

Let's take a look and see which companies that have gone public in the last five years have been able to stay ahead of market trends, and which have fallen prey. 

• Facebook is up 2.5x from its IPO price, but it is still down over six percent for the year. That is the best performances for any tech company right now, as you'll see in the list below. 

IPO price: $38 (Date: May 18, 2012)

Price at the start of the year: $101.95

Current price: $97.94

Percentage change for the year: down 6.49 percent

Percentage change from IPO: up 157.7 percent

• Twitter has been having a horrible time lately, to put it mildly. The company, which only seems to perk up when someone offers to buy it, has lost nearly a quarter of its value in just three weeks

IPO price: $26 (November 6, 2013)

Price at the start of the year: $22.64

Current price: $17.8

Percentage change for the year: down 22.90 percent

Percentage change from IPO: down 31.5 percent

• LinkedIn is down nearly 12 percent on the year. Normally that would be bad, but in comparison to many other tech companies on this list, it's still held up since its IPO. 

IPO price: $45 (May 19, 2011)

Price at the start of the year: $222.06

Current price:$199.46

Percentage change for the year:  down 11.38 percent

Percentage change from IPO: up 343.2 percent

• Yelp's stock lost an even bigger percentage than Twitter this year. Disappointing earnings and slower than expected sales expansion have hit the company hard. 

IPO price: $15 (March 2, 2012)

Price at the start of the year: $28.4

Current price: $21.73

Percentage change for the year:  down 24.55 percent

Percentage change from IPO: up 44.7 percent

• Groupon has been really hard by the falling daily deals space in recent years. Still, it's not down as much as you'd think. Maybe it just doesn't have much further to fall?

IPO price: $20 (October 21, 2011)

Price at the start of the year: $3.03

Current price: $2.65

Percentage change for the year: down 13.68 percent

Percentage change from IPO: down 86.75 percent

• Square is doing so poorly that it actually lost value on Friday, something that no other company on this list did. That is fitting for the company that was said to have had the worst IPO of 2015. 

IPO price: $9 (November 18, 2015)

Price at the start of the year: $12.75

Current price: $9.85

Percentage change for the year: down 24.75 percent

Percentage change from IPO: up 9.4 percent

• Fitbit has been enduring investor trepidation about its smartwatches, which have hurt the company, which was said to have had the best IPO of 2015. 

IPO price: $20 (June 17, 2015)

Price at the start of the year: $28.65

Current price: $18.81

Percentage change for the year: down 20.70 percent 

Percentage change from IPO: down 6 percent

• Box avoided having an IPO for a long time, and since it did go public, investors have balked at its underperformaing earnings, as well as big shareholder sell offs. 

IPO price: $14 (January 23, 2015)

Price at the start of the year: $13.46

Current price: $10.59

Percentage change for the year: down 24.14 percent

Percentage change from IPO: down 24.4 percent

• Truecar saw some good news on Friday: it's stock went up. That's just about the only good news for the company right now, which has lost nearly a third of its value in less than three weeks!

IPO price: $9 (May 16, 2014)

Price at the start of the year: $9.23

Current price: $6.44

Percentage change for the year: down 32.49 percent

Percentage change from IPO: down 28.4 percent

• GoPro's stock price has been absolutely mauled this year so far, to the tune of losing nearly 40 percent of its value. The problems started in 2015 with demand for its camera going down, and bad market conditions have just made things so much worse. 

IPO price: $24 (June 25, 2014)

Price at the start of the year: $17.57

Current price: $10.83

Percentage change for the year: down 39.87 percent

Percentage change from IPO: down 54.9 percent