Two of the Nasdaq-100’s best-known growth names have posted the index’s worst returns so far in 2026. Advertising-tech company AppLovin is down roughly 53%, narrowly ahead of tax software maker Intuit, also down around 53%, according to a year-to-date performance ranking circulated by markets commentary account Bull Theory. Rounding out the bottom of the list are Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (-43%), Monster Beverage (-39%), Strategy (-39%), Intuitive Surgical (-30%), PDD Holdings (-25%), Adobe (-25%), Tesla (-24%) and Thomson Reuters (-21%).
AppLovin’s decline looks sharper than its underlying business performance would suggest. The company’s own second-quarter results, released August 5, showed revenue of $1.92 billion, up 53% year-over-year, adjusted EBITDA up 58% to $1.61 billion, and forward guidance calling for continued 46–48% revenue growth in the third quarter — a print that nonetheless triggered a sharp selloff after the stock had run up to a 52-week high near $746 earlier in the year.
A Valuation Reset, Not a Growth Collapse
What connects AppLovin’s slide to the broader list is that several of these declines look more like valuation compression than deteriorating fundamentals. Consensus 2027 earnings estimates for AppLovin have actually risen roughly 8.5% year-to-date even as the stock fell nearly 49% over the same period — a gap that shows the market repricing how much it’s willing to pay for that growth, rather than losing confidence in the growth itself. Intuit’s pattern is similar: the company’s sales rose 10% in its most recent quarter and it raised its full-year guidance, even as the stock posted the index’s second-worst year-to-date return.
Not Every Name on the List Tells the Same Story
Not every laggard shares that “fundamentals fine, multiple crushed” pattern — Adobe and Tesla, for instance, have faced more direct questions about slowing growth and competitive pressure rather than simple multiple compression, and Strategy’s decline is tied closely to Bitcoin’s own price action given the company’s balance-sheet exposure to the asset.
Related: Nebius Stock Jumps 34% on Earnings, Leaving Michael Burry's Short Underwater
Why the List Matters Beyond Individual Names
A Nasdaq-100 laggard list this heavy on richly valued growth and software names, sitting alongside a bond-market backdrop of long-term yields at their highest since 2008, points to the same underlying theme: investors are demanding more certainty for the multiples they’re willing to pay, and stocks priced for perfection have had the least room for error when results merely meet, rather than beat, already-high expectations.
