BOSTON (CNN/Money) - Everywhere you look, it seems, tech stock prices are plummeting. The search sector? Down. Internet retail? Whoa. Semiconductors? Like a block of silicon.

This isn't happening to also-rans and startups with weak marketing staffs. Consider the slide of these tech blue chips: Both Yahoo! and eBay are down more than 16 percent from the 52-week highs reached a little over a month ago. Amazon has lost 29 percent of its value in a month, and just hit a 52-week low. Intel hit three new 52-week lows in July.

Another bubble bursting? Not exactly, but these drops nonetheless signal more trouble for the tech sector: Do well, get punished anyway.

Unlike in the massive correction in 2000, many of these stocks are profitable and growing at healthy double-digit rates. They are finally producing the kinds of earnings and growth that analysts and investors have clamored for.

The technology stocks on the S&P 500 returned 66 percent growth this most recent quarter, year over year -- compared with 25.5 percent for the index overall. What's more, technology stocks had a "surprise factor" -- the amount by which the stocks beat the consensus earnings-per-share number -- of 4 percent this quarter, when the average was 3 percent.

"These companies are still beating expectations; the earnings are solid," says Gint Rimas, an analyst with Thomson Financial. "But there's a disconnect."

Part of the problem is that investor demands are higher than ever. Tech stocks, and Internet stocks in particular, face higher expectations. After the market collapse of 2000, scores of companies went out of business.

Most survivors have dramatically reconfigured themselves, streamlined operations, brought costs under control, and delivered what the market demanded: profits.

What they haven't delivered are higher and higher expectations. Tech execs are guarded when talking about future quarters. With the market as a whole in a cautious phase right now -- higher oil prices, a soft recovery, and the presidential election all weigh heavily -- tech companies are being hammered for behavior that, coming from other companies, the Street might see as prudent.

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"There's absolutely no reason why a tech executive would want to go out on a limb and be more optimistic than necessary right now," says Scott Rothbort, president of LakeView Asset Management, an investment adviser. "What's the upside to overpromising?" There isn't one. So they take the hit instead.

Now, most tech stocks are growth stocks carrying high valuations in their stock prices. If you have a forward price/earnings ratio of 50 or so, you'd better keep producing high double-digit growth to justify the princely price.

The trick for investors is to figure out which companies are being overly cautious with their forecasts.

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