The VAR Guy

Software as a service (SaaS) and cloud stocks continue to show some strength. For the week ending March 12, The VAR Guy’s SaaS 20 Stock Index — which tracks 20 SaaS and cloud stocks — rose 4.19%, and the index is now up a healthy 5.57% so far in 2010. Weekly winners included Kenexa Corp. (KNXA), Vocus Inc. (VOCS) and NetSuite (N). Here’s a closer look at the weekly leaders and laggards.

After a hot start to 2010, software as a service stocks slipped about 2.05 percent for the week ending January 15, according to The VAR Guy’s SaaS 20 Stock Index. Still, several index members enjoyed a strong showing. Here’s a look at the weekly winners and losers.

Software as a service (SaaS) stocks extended their 2009 winning streak during the first week of 2010. In fact, The VAR Guy’s SaaS 20 Stock Index rose 2.6% for the week ending Jan. 8, 2010, compared to closing prices on Dec. 31, 2009. Winners beat losers by a margin of 3 to 1. Here’s a quick look at the biggest one-week movers.

The VAR Guy’s SaaS 20 Stock Index, which tracks software as a service stocks, rose a whopping 65.44 percent in 2009, including a healthy 3.63 percent in December 2009. Pretty impressive. But which SaaS companies performed best last year — and can the SaaS industry stay hot in 2010? Here are some thoughts.

Rackspace Hosting Inc. (RAX) has replaced Omniture in our SaaS 20 Stock Index, which tracks publicly held companies that have software as a service (SaaS) business practices. Here’s a quick look at the SaaS 20 Stock Index, its members and its overall performance in 2009.

Zoho, the SaaS provider and Google Apps competitor that offers online office suites and other business applications, has launched Zoho Recruit. The VAR Guy wonders: Will solutions providers use Recruit to fill their own vacancies?

As Oracle OpenWorld 2009 kicks off today in San Francisco, Channel Chief Judson Althoff (pictured) and several other Oracle team members are talking up the company’s SaaS (software as a service) strategy for channel partners and ISVs (independent software vendors). Here’s the scoop.

The worst of times have turned into the best of times for software as a service (SaaS) stocks. After a horrid performance in 2008, SaaS stocks rallied nearly 30 percent during the first half of 2009, according to Nine Lives Media Inc.’s SaaS 20 Stock Index. Here’s a look at the SaaS leaders to date…

Despite new concerns about Salesforce.com’s growth rate, software as a service (SaaS) stocks are outperforming the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq so far this year, according to our SaaS 20 Stock Index. And a new relationship between IBM and Intuit shows where SaaS is heading next. Here’s a look at SaaS trends on Wall Street.

Strong quarterly earnings from multiple Software as a Service (SaaS) stocks lifted our SaaS 20 Stock Index 5.7% for the week ended May 1. Winners beat losers, 17 to 3 — as investors sharply bid shares up at Athenahealth Inc., Concur Technologies Inc., SuccessFactors Inc., NetSuite Inc. and Ingram Micro Inc. Here’s a closer look at the weekly SaaS winners and losers.

The trend is undeniable. Technology companies — from OnForce to Red Hat — are launching so-called indexes to track IT trends. Those indexes, in turn, generate considerable media buzz, cross links, mind share and search engine optimization (SEO) for the vendors involved. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

The SaaS 20 Stock Index climbed 1.86 percent for the week ending April 17, pushing software as a service stocks to their highest levels since mid October. Here’s a look at the weekly SaaS winners and losers.

After a depressing 2008, software as a service stocks continue to rally in 2009. The latest example: Our SaaS 20 Stock Index rose 3.45 percent for the week ending April 10, and the index is up 8.68 percent since the start of 2009. Here’s a quick look at the SaaS industry’s year-to-date winners and losers.

Investors are worried about executive changes at Salesforce.com, but that didn’t stop a strong rally this week in software as a service (SaaS) stocks. Thanks to strong earnings from RightNow Technologies (RNOW) and several other companies, our SaaS 20 Stock Index jumped more than 7 percent for the week ended February 6. Here’s a look at the weekly SaaS winners and losers.

First, the good news: Software as a service (SaaS) stocks performed better than the Dow Jones Industrial Average (down 8.84 percent) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (down 8.57 percent) in January 2009. Now the bad news: SaaS stocks still fell almost 7 percent during the month, according to our SaaS 20 Stock Index. Here’s a look at the biggest monthly SaaS winners and losers, plus a SaaS market forecast from IDC.

Our SaaS 20 stock index, which tracks software as a service stocks, is now down more than 5 percent in 2009, having slipped a nominal 1.22 percent for the week ended January 23. Here’s a look at the weekly SaaS winners and losers.

So far, the New Year year hasn’t been a happy one for software as a service stocks. Our SaaS 20 Stock Index fell 3.16 percent for the week ended January 16, and the index is now down 3.92 percent since the New Year. While TheVARguy.com remains upbeat about SaaS opportunities for VARs and managed service providers, investors remain cautious.

Software as a Service (SaaS) stocks are showing some strength, climbing three consecutive weeks. In the latest winning round, our SaaS 20 Stock Index climbed a modest 1.28 percent for the week ended Dec. 12. The index’s big weekly winners included SuccessFactors Inc. (SFSF, +23.95%) and Kenexa Corp. (KNXA, +18.40%). There were also some big weekly losers including Salary.com (SLRY, -24.24%) and Vocus Inc. (VOCS, -20.25%). Here’s some more background on each company.

Software as a service stocks (SaaS) rose sharply for the second consecutive week. Specifically, our SaaS 20 Stock Index climbed 4 percent for the week ended Dec. 5, and the index is up more than 21 percent since bottoming out on November 21.

Attention bargain bin shoppers: Software as a Service (SaaS) stocks have declined more than 50 percent from January through Nov. 14, 2008, reports MSPmentor — The VAR Guy’s sister site. Our resident blogger doesn’t make buy, sell or hold recommendations. But isn’t SaaS supposed to be the future of software???