This month’s First Cut identifies the S&P Composite 1500 index stocks that have the lowest price change during the first half of this year compared to their peers. We present the 10 weakest-performing stocks for each of the three component indexes that constitute the S&P Composite 1500.

The price-earnings (P/E) ratios for the company and its industry highlight the valuation of these stocks, while the recent and expected growth rates reveal trends and expectations in top- and bottom-line growth. Median values for each index are provided for comparison.

The weakest performers highlight where investors chose to reduce exposure. Many of the largest declines occurred in software, information technology (IT) services and enterprise application companies—including Accenture PLC (ACN), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) and Intuit Inc. (INTU)—as investors favored businesses supplying the semiconductor, memory and data-center ecosystem. Notably, several laggards continued to report healthy revenue and earnings growth, suggesting that their declines were driven less by deteriorating fundamentals than by valuation compression and a rotation toward companies viewed as more direct beneficiaries of capital spending related to artificial intelligence (AI). 

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