Bucking Trend, Harbinger and Bisys Stumble

Several providers of bank technology took a beating in the stock market Friday, in a week when technology shares in general rose.

Bisys Group Inc. and Harbinger Corp. were among the hardest hit.

Bisys shares, which opened Friday at $39.125, fell $6.50 after the company announced its mutual fund units had lost contracts with Pacific Horizon Funds. (See story on page 1.)

Harbinger's shares dropped $4.75 to $31.25 Thursday after Oppenheimer & Co. downgraded the stock to "marketperform," on concerns the company's revenue growth may slow.

The company's net income for the quarter was $2.2 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $1.5 million or 8 cents per share in the same period last year.

Harbinger, which beat consensus earnings estimates by a penny, is expected to initiate a secondary public offering of 2.9 million shares today.

Goldman Sachs & Co.'s index of U.S. technology stocks showed these companies' shares are running in the opposite direction of their peers.

The index, which has gained 34.5% since January, gained 5.5% for the week and closed at 156.7.

Diebold Inc. was one of the bright spots among bank technology providers.

Its shares rose $1.31 for the week on an announcement of quarterly net income of $30 million, or 45 cents per share, 2 cents above expectations.