Tech Stock Movers of the Week

A new acquisition in the aerospace industry drove the winners in our latest list of tech stock* movers, while new IPOs led the losers.

Orbital ATK Inc. (NYSE: OA) jumped 20.5% after it was announced Monday that Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) will acquire the aerospace and defense company for $7.8 million in cash. Northrup Grumman will also take on an additional $1.4 billion in debt. The deal values Orbital at $134.50 per share after it closed the previous trading day at $110.04. OA shares closed the week at $132.64.

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AJRD) wasn't far behind, with a 19.6% bump. Given its similar profile, Aerojet likely benefited from the Orbital acquisition. Money Morning Global Energy Strategist Dr. Kent Moors recommended Aerojet to readers last month, saying it "will be a main beneficiary of the renewed national defense posture moving forward." At the time, it was already up 22% since Kent had recommended it to his premium subscribers (more info here). Now it's up another 25%, closing the week at $33.89.

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Now for last week's tech disappointments…

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) led the losers with a 10.2% drop. No stranger to our movers list, Snap was among the winners earlier this month as well as once in August, but made the losers list once in both July and August. Simply put, this is one of the more volatile stocks out there right now. SNAP went public in March at $17 per share, but, in spite of an early surge, it fell as low as $11.83 in August. Shares closed last week at $13.70.

Cloudera Inc. (NYSE: CLDR) appears among the biggest losers for the second week in a row, and it makes the movers list for the third consecutive week. After the market closed on Sept. 15, Cloudera filed for an offering of $175 million of common stock. The company's initial public offering was only five months ago, when shares were sold at $15. The stock has been up and down ever since – hence its frequent appearances among our top movers – but has stayed within a range of $15 to $23. Shares closed the week at $16.91.

Tech Stocks to Watch This Week

Here are a couple tech stocks we're keeping an eye on for the coming week…

• Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) reports earnings on Monday, Sept. 25. Red Hat has been called "the next cloud giant" and has increased its earnings every year since 2010.
• Microsoft Inc. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is holding its Ignite Conference this week in Orlando, Fla. The showcase event should include announcements about Azure, Windows 10, and SQL Server 2017, among other products.

We'll keep you updated if there's anything you need to know to make money on these moves.

*Stocks have a primary listing on a U.S. exchange, a market cap greater than $1 billion, and are in either the Technology Services or Electronic Technology sector. Data and analytics provided by FactSet.

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Stephen Mack

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Stephen Mack has been writing about economics and finance since 2011. He contributed material for the best-selling books Aftershock and The Aftershock Investor. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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