Article written by Matt Phillips
With the tech bull market that has taken Wall Street by storm over the past 10 years, major corporations such as Apple Inc., Amazon.com, Microsoft Corp., and Google have dominated both headlines and the tech universe as a whole. However, as seen in the past few weeks, FANMAG (FB, AAPL, NFLX, MSFT, AMZN, GOOG) have seen their shares fall dramatically as investors grow weary of their exuberant P/E multiples and sky-high valuations.
Though, look past the FANG’s and FANMAG’s, and into less-recognized pony tech companies, some of which most retail investors have never heard off, are still climbing. Chegg Inc., an American education company is up 75% this year. Veeva Systems Inc., a cloud-computing firm which specializes in pharmaceutical and life sciences applications, is up 90%.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, trends such as remote working, shopping online, and contactless payments have been been greatly accelerated and, to a certain degree, expected by the consumer. As a result, many niche companies are helping satiate this demand with a slew of boutique services including payment processing (Xsolla), online shopping (Spotify), and e-learning services (ala Chegg Inc.).
The tech-heavy NASDAQ index, made up mostly of blue-chip technology stocks, is up nearly 60% for the year despite its free-fall in March. Much of the index’s gain can be attributed to the FANMAG’s, where investors believed the pandemic helped solidify their market dominance, even improving their future outlook as more consumers shop online and use their services to minimize human contact and assist their remote work needs.
However, the trajectory of smaller technology has been even more remarkable. Zoom technologies, a household name at this point in 2020, by helping millions of remote workers and politicians alike with its video-conferencing service, is up nearly 500% (!!!) for the year.
Peleton Interactive Inc., the home cycling workout firm, is up nearly 200%, as fitness junkies around the world canceled their gym memberships for a workout-from-home exercise bike.
Even lesser-known companies such as Chegg (digital textbook service), Fastly (delivery of video and gaming technology), and Veeva (provides cloud-services to life-science companies) have shown similar gains.
“Households and consumers are consuming more technology to work at home”, says Jeff James, manager of small and midsize stock funds at Driehaus Capital Management. “What we’ve seen is an acceleration in the digital trasnformtion”.
With in-person shopping drying up for the past seven months, online retailers such as Etsy Inc., Caravana Co, are up 90% and 140%, respectively. At the end of June, more than 16% of all retail sales were online.
“We’ve seen the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally shift the way businesses and consumers interact, it has catalyzed e-commerce”, remarked Shopify’s COO, Harley Finkelstein. Shopify’s shares are up more than 120% this year.
Back in 1990, when the tech bubble was filled with high profile flops such as Pets.com and Webvan that were riddled with little to no revenue, today, companies with similar business plans, such as Instacart, have hammered out solid performances with the help of an economic downturn,
Companies and consumers alike have developed new habits as a result of COVID-19, some may now even prefer the new, easily accessible product such as Chegg for e-learning support from your bed/couch, or with Shopify to sell your products from your living room. If you have missed out on the tech rally of the past 6 months, it may be time to bet on the ponies…
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