SaaS Stocks Slip 2% for Week Ending Jan. 15

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.

Weekly SaaS 20 Stock Index winners included…

• Salary.com (SLRY, +13.54%): The SaaS company, which specializes in HR talent management, in North America launched SkillsManager, a skills gap analysis and assessment solution for Salary.com’s talent management portfolio.
• RightNow Technologies (RNOW, +4.68%): The CX (customer experience) specialist didn’t announce any news but a research firm in late December 2009 raised its price target for RightNow’s shares. Also, RightNow is striving to articulate the difference between CX and CRM.
• NetSuite (N, +3.40%): The CRM and business management software provider expects to announce Q4 results on February 4. The VAR Guy will be watching.

Weekly losers included:

• Kenexa Corp. (KNXA, -15.21%): Piper Jaffray downgraded Kenexa shares on January 6. The HR software provider will announce full-year results on February 2.
• SuccessFactors (SFSF, -7.96%): Another HR- and business software specialist, SuccessFactors will announce quarterly results on Feb. 4. The one-week share drop might have involved profit takers; SuccessFactors’ shares were up nearly 16% during the first week of January 2010.
• Salesforce.com (CRM, -7.44%): Salesforce.com shares enjoyed a serious run in 2009 — climbing from about $34 to about $73. But so far in 2010 investors seem to think shares in the CRM SaaS specialist are over-valued. As of Jan. 15, shares were down to $68.63.

What’s Next

SaaS 20 Stock Index members will announce plenty of financial news over the next few weeks. Also keep an eye on a partner conference involving Websense later this week in Southern California. The VAR Guy will be watching.

Launched in January 2008 to track the software as a service industry, The SaaS 20 Stock Index has been a roller-coaster performer. As of January 15, 2010, the SaaS 20 Stock Index stands at 911.18 — up 0.49% in 2010 but down nearly 10 percent since the index’s inception in 2008.