The impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. economy and the ability of Americans to work has been devastating. While the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the US, businesses of all sizes are affected as people spend more time at home, and spend less time shopping, eating out and spending money as usual. As a result, many companies have had to lay off workers, which has pushed the percentage of unemployed Americans past 10%.
But despite all the economic turmoil, some tech stocks are booming at the moment. With more people working from home, many tech companies have seen demand for their products and services during this time. Specifically, Call (NASDAQ: AAPL), Curse (NYSE: FSLY), en Shopify (NYSE: STORE) have grown despite the pandemic. Here’s what investors need to know about these three tech stocks.
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1. Apple
Apple is the proof that large, stable companies not only make good investments in the long run, but they can also be huge investments during economic uncertainty. Despite the pandemic, Apple’s revenue increased 11% and its revenue jumped 18% in its fiscal third quarter. The company’s total revenue of $ 59.7 billion for the year and revenue of $ 2.58 per share blew past consensus estimates from analysts of $ 52.3 billion and $ 2.07 per share, respectively.
Two bright spots in the third quarter were Apple’s service segment, which increased revenue by 15%, and the wearable, home and accessories segment, where sales jumped 16.7%.
Investors have been attracted to Apple in recent months as they search for companies that could drive economic uncertainty. The $ 194 billion in tech giant, loyal customer base, new portable tech, and growing list of services Apple has allowed in recent months. The shares have gained 54% since the beginning of 2020, and have risen 130% in the past 12 months.
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2. Fixed
Snel is not a household name, but the company has quickly garnered attention from investors this year. That’s because Fastly’s services help companies speed up their websites, apps, videos, etc. – which has become more important than ever as people spend more time at home during the pandemic.
Snel is just emerging from a very strong second quarter in which sales increased 62% year-on-year to $ 75 million, easily beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $ 71.4 million. The company also reported non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $ 0.02, beating Wall Street’s expectations of a loss of $ 0.01 per share.
In addition to the company’s impressive revenue and revenue figures, Fast also increased its customers in the quarter to 1,951, up from 1,837 in the previous quarter, and expanded its gross margin to 61.7%, up from 55.6 % in the previous quarter.
Surprisingly, many investors sold their Fastly shares after the second quarter results were published, and the share fell almost 18%. But do not let short-sighted investors scare you for this business. Its services help accelerate online offerings, and the steady growth of Fastly shows that other companies are seeing the benefit of using these services to enhance the experience of their users.
The company’s stock has risen 333% since the beginning of this year; Fastly’s results from the second quarter prove that the recent sell-off by investors creates a buying opportunity for investors who want to hold on to this company in the long run.
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3. Shopify
When the coronavirus began spreading across the US several months ago, companies of all sizes began to consider using e-commerce to keep their businesses on the floor. This rapid shift to online sales caused a spike in demand for Shopify’s e-commerce platform, which was already growing rapidly.
The pandemic boosted Shopify’s sales by 97% in the second quarter to $ 714.3 million, far exceeding analysts’ estimates of $ 510.8 million in revenue. In addition, gross merchandise volume (GMV) – the total dollar value of orders processed on Shopify – grew 119% to $ 30.1 billion in the quarter.
Shopify’s blowout quarter and its growth in the e-commerce market have convinced many observers that this tech company is worth investing in. As a result, Shopify’s stock has skyrocketed 223% over the past 12 months. With no end in sight for COVID-19 or an idea of when shopping in person will return to normal, Shopify is well positioned to continue to grow during the pandemic and beyond.
