Here's What Trump's Presidential Victory Means for Technology Stocks

As the dramatic presidential election neared its close on Tuesday, prominent tech investor Shervin Pishevar tweeted that he is starting a campaign for Silicon Valley's home state to secede from the union. While others in the Valley may share that sentiment, the new president's overall impact on the tech sector will likely be more of a mixed bag.

While president-elect Donald Trump has lined up against the tech sector on a number of significant issues, from net neutrality to international trade agreements and looser immigration policies for skilled tech workers, his stance on overseas cash would be a boon for many big technology firms.

Mizuho technology analyst Abhey Lamba suggested in a note that the election would have a negative impact on stocks he covers, which span Apple (AAPL) to VMWare (VMW) , but could also create buying opportunities.

Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) , he suggested, are attractive names that are "not expensive," and Lamba also noted that Apple's price "does not reflect [the] true value of its large and loyal customer base."

All three stocks were down more than 1.2% in early trading on Wednesday.

One of the President-elect's policies could help the tech sector, however. Trump has said he would allow companies with offshore cash to repatriate funds at a one-time discounted tax rate of 10%.

"Given the Republican control, there is a possibility of some tax relief to incent companies to bring foreign cash back to the U.S., offering an opportunity for them to invest, buy back stock and acquire assets," Lamba wrote. "We expect the pace of M&A to accelerate and more buybacks in case there is a broader meltdown impacting stocks in our coverage and management teams are able to access cash in foreign locations."


Of corporate America's projected $1.3 trillion in offshore cash at year end, according to an estimate by Moody's, Apple, Microsoft (MSFT) , Alphabet (GOOGL) , Cisco (CSCO) and Oracle (ORCL) will collectively hold more than $500 billion.