Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) shares plunged today after Russia invaded Crimea, which is part of the Ukraine. Now Russia occupies a number of strategic locations in the area, and the U.S. and other nations in the West denounced the occupation, threatening sanctions if Russia doesn’t back off. Yandex is just one of several Russian companies with stocks that declined today in U.S. markets.
Yandex is one of today’s worst-performing tech stocks
As one of Russia’s largest public companies, Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) is among those hit hardest by today’s invasion. In fact, the company’s stock has been one of the worst-performing stocks in the technology sector. Yandex runs the biggest search engine in Russia, making it somewhat equivalent to a Russian version of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). The company’s business is mostly confined to the Ukraine, Russia and other nations in the region, so sanctions could have a major effect on it.
The Street rates Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) as a Hold because of mixed factors. The ratings team doesn’t see much evidence to suggest either a positive or negative performance for Yandex compared to other stocks.
Positives balanced by negatives at Yandex
They see a number of strengths, like its “robust revenue growth, solid stock price performance and growth in earnings per share.” Yandex’s revenue growth has slightly outpaced the rest of the industry, which has averaged 16.5%. As investors began to recognize the strength in this company, share prices have risen by 57.39% over the last year, which is more than the S&P 500 Index. They note that the company’s gross profit margin is very high at 70.58%, although that has declined year over year. However, its net profit margin is 27.35%, which is favorably comparable to the average of the industry.
However, they also see a number of negatives, like its “unimpressive” net income. Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX)’s net income growth has underperformed that of the S&P 500 and the industry average in Software and Services.
Other Russian companies also slump
In addition to Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), Russian payments service provider Qiwi PLC (NASDAQ:QIWI) declined nearly 17% at the NASDAQ today after news about the invasion. In addition, the Russian ruble is down to new lows versus the U.S. dollar.
