Software's Recovery Is Still Loading

It’s been just over a year since the iShares Software ETF (IGV) peaked on September 22, 2025, and getting back to that level has been a work in progress. From its high a year ago through its April 10th low, IGV fell 36.6%, losing more than a third of its value in less than seven months. The ETF has since rallied 43%, bringing it back above both its 50- and 200-DMA, but it’s still 9.4% below last September’s peak.

The recovery for software also looks very different depending on which individual stocks you’re looking at. The tables below show performance for IGV’s holdings from the ETF’s September 2025 peak to its April low, since that low, and over the full period. Stocks are sorted by market cap, from the largest companies to the smallest, and all returns use IGV’s peak and trough dates rather than each stock’s individual highs and lows. Of the 106 stocks shown, 72 are still down since IGV peaked, with a median decline of 17.6%. So even after the rebound from the April low, more than two-thirds are still below where they traded last September.

Some of the clearest differences are among the biggest names. CrowdStrike (CRWD) and Fortinet (FTNT) have more than doubled since IGV’s September peak, and Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is up nearly 80%. Those gains stand in contrast to a company like Oracle (ORCL), which has recovered little of its decline and is still down 54.5% since the ETF’s September high.

For AppLovin (APP) and Intuit (INTU), there hasn’t even been a rebound over the same period. Both have fallen another 16% or more since IGV bottomed in April. Even participating in the rally hasn’t guaranteed a full recovery. Atlassian (TEAM) has gained 230.1% since April 10th, the strongest rebound of any stock shown, but that leaves it up just 10.6% since last September.

The next two tables show IGV’s holdings with smaller market caps, where performance has also varied considerably. RingCentral (RNG) and Arteris (AIP) gained ground between the ETF’s September peak and April trough, then added to those gains during the recovery. Both are now up more than 135% over the full period. At the bottom of the performance rankings, SoundHound AI (SOUN) and Life360 (LIF) are down 64.6% and 59.9%, respectively, since last September. IGV has narrowed its loss to single digits since its last record high a year ago, but those two stocks would still need to more than double just to return to their levels when the ETF peaked.

IGV needs another 10.3% gain to get back to its September 2025 high. From here, one thing to watch is whether stocks like Oracle (ORCL), Adobe (ADBE), and HubSpot (HUBS) can build on their modest rebounds. They, and many others, sat out much of the rally from April’s low, so there’s still a sizable group of laggards that could help carry the next leg higher.