The truth about techs

Article Excerpt

When they think about investing in technology stocks, many people focus on growth. Tech stocks have produced a sizeable part of all stock-market profits in the past two decades, particularly in the late 1990s and the early part of this decade. However, it pays to keep a couple of easy-to-overlook facts about techs in mind: First, most techs, particularly hardware makers, are prime examples of stocks that belong in the Manufacturing & Industry sectors. This sector, along with Resources & Commodities, is the home of the market’s most volatile, cyclical stocks. Of course, many top techs are well-established companies with little debt. However, industry characteristics saddle them with high risk. Rapid change in products keeps the market highly competitive. Most techs need to spend heavily on research just to maintain their market share, let alone grow. Because of the rapid change, they need to spend heavily on updating their equipment and production. (This applies even if they farm out production to outside…