IYW iShares US Technology ETF

Google (GOOG) has, over the past few years, been one of the kings of tech, dominating the broad search market to an extremely impressive degree. The firm has also branched out into a number of other segments such as in the phone platform world, where it has also had a great deal of success.

Thanks to this impressive track record, the firm has managed to surge in price over the past few years and keep its earnings per share high, with double digit earnings growth projected for the foreseeable future. However, the company has run into some issues as of late and appears to be hitting a rough patch, best evidenced by its surprise earnings miss during Thursday trading (read Technology ETFs Outperforming XLK).

The company experienced an error which caused earnings to go out early, and the figures were not good, showcasing a -17% earnings surprise for the quarter. The firm saw EPS of just $7.35, roughly $1.53 below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $8.88 (Zacks utilizes a BRNI approach for earnings).

However, revenues were still solid, coming in roughly 18.6% higher than a year ago, while paid clicks surged 33% from a year ago, and 6% higher sequentially. Additionally, this meant that costs per click decreased 15% on an annual basis while this number slumped 3% compared to the previous quarter (see Three Great Tech ETFs That Avoid Apple).

Overall, the surprise about the timing and the shocking miss were disasters for the company’s stock price as GOOG was down nearly double digits before the stock was halted, while it finished the day lower by about 8% or roughly $60/share. Basically, today’s slump erased all of the gains that the company had seen in the past four weeks, putting the stock below $700/share as well.

In addition to crushing the share price of GOOG, the miss also devastated several ETFs in the process. In fact, according to XTF.com, roughly 125 ETFs have Google as a component, accounting for nearly 4% of the stock’s total outstanding shares.

Given this, we have highlighted three of the biggest holders of Google stock in ETF form and how they have held up in light of the search giant’s terrible earnings report and uncertain outlook for the near term. These funds could either be tech products to stay away from for those who believe GOOG’s troubles are just beginning, or products to cycle into for those who are cautiously optimistic over Google’s longer-term health:

iShares Dow Jones US Technology ETF (IYW) - This ETF tracks the Dow Jones US Technology index holding roughly 145 stocks in its basket. Of those firms, GOOG takes the fourth spot, making up roughly 8% of assets.

Following the announcement, the fund finished the day down about 1.8% on volume that was roughly two times normal. Still, the ETF is up over 12% year-to-date, although it has fallen by over 7% in the trailing one month period (also see Why SSDD Is The Top Tech ETF).

PowerShares NASDAQ Internet Portfolio (PNQI) - This fund follows the NASDAQ Internet Index, a benchmark of firms that trade on the Nasdaq and are in the broad internet industry. Unsurprisingly, GOOG takes the top spot in this fund, accounting for roughly 8.5% of assets.

Given this, some investors may be surprised to read that the fund lost just 1.5% on the day and that volume in the fund was just barely above historical averages. Over the past month, this fund has done much better than IYW, falling by just 2.5%, while it has also outperformed on a year-to-date basis, adding over 15% in the period (read Three ETFs with the Most Apple Exposure).

First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index (FDN) – Another big tech ETF is FDN which tracks internet firms based on the Dow Jones Internet Index, a benchmark that holds about 40 securities in total. Much like its PowerShares counterpart, GOOG gets the top spot although in this fund that means a 10.8% allocation, by far the most in the ETF world.

In terms of performance, FDN slumped by roughly 1.6% on the day on volume that was roughly double the historical average. Longer term, it is in line with the others on the list, adding 12.6% in the year-to-date time frame, while it has lost about 3.6% in the trailing one month period.

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