The past two months or so haven't exactly been a happy time for ASX shares. Since the end of March, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has lost around 4.2% of its value. But it's been a far harder time for the Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA) share price.
Nearmap, an aerial mapping company, has seen its shares fall from more than $1.50 each in late March to today's price of $1.175 at the close of trade on Friday. That represents a fall of more than 20% in just two months or so.
So why have Nearmap shares been suffering so severely over the past two months?
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Why has the Nearmap share price tanked?
Well, it's not entirely clear what's happened to the Nearmap share price.
It's very possible that these falls could have been sparked by the flood of cash we have seen fleeing the tech sector over the past few months. Tech shares of all shapes and sizes have been experiencing some heavy volatility over the year to date.
Since late March, the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) has lost close to 20% of its value. We've seen this play out in other ASX tech shares like Block Inc (ASX: SQ2), Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP) and Xero Limited (ASX: XRO).
All of these companies have lost more than 20% of their value since the end of March. Block is down almost 40%, Zip almost 50%. So in the context of these moves, the Nearmap share price's experience doesn't seem too peculiar.
According to an expert…
But Nearmap has also been suffering from some coolness towards its shares from ASX brokers. Back in April, my Fool colleague covered how broker Macquarie downgraded Nearmap shares to a neutral rating, with a 12-month share price target of $1.34. This may have helped Nearmap shares slump 3.5% at the time. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
So it's probably a combination of these factors that have led Nearmap shares to such a dismal performance of late. No doubt investors will be hoping the next two months are more fruitful than the last two.
At the current Nearmap share price, this ASX tech share has a market capitalisation of $581.56 million.
