A broker is blaming a sharp dip in Xero shares on "profit taking" investors.
Shares in the accounting software provider were trading at $16.50 at 2.30pm, 12 per cent below the all-time high of $18.79 they hit last Monday.
Xero's market capitalisation, which reached $2.2 billion last week, has fallen back to $1.9 billion this afternoon.
James Smalley, of sharebrokers Hamilton Hindin Greene, said there had been a pattern of company's shares rising strongly, falling back on profit taking, and then surging up again.
"The moment the shares come down for a day or two days in a row - that's when investors think 'right, time to get out'," he said. "Because they all try and run for the exit at the same time, you can have quite a big pull back with no company news ... It's just a bit of profit taking."