Quest Software Sees Shares Decline 16%

Quest Software Inc., the Newport Beach software company whose stock exploded Friday in its market debut, saw its shares fall more than 16%, or $7.63 a share, on Monday to close at $39.38. At one point the shares rose as high as $51.25 before retreating.

The decline cut the company’s market capitalization to $1.5 billion from $1.8 billion on Friday, when the stock tripled in frantic trading.

A total of 3.2 million shares changed hands Monday, compared with 14.3 million shares Friday.

The profitable company develops software that allows companies to manage and retrieve information from large databases.