Mid-season earnings report: Cloud stocks passes the test – The Average Joe

    Mid-season earnings report: Cloud stocks passes the test

    Victor Lei — Head of Research

    February 10, 2022

    cloud stocks

    February 10, 2022

    Earnings season rages on — with two cloud stocks set to report earnings after the market close today — Cloudflare and Hubspot.

    What’s the big deal? Both stocks are high-quality names — beaten down from the correction in recent months.

    • Cloudflare (NASDAQ:NET) provides cloud web security services — replacing traditional routers, firewalls, VPNS, etc.
    • HubSpot (NASDAQ:HUBS) provides businesses of all sizes with cloud software in sales and marketing tools.
    • WS analysts’ price targets: $HUBS — $752.55 high (46% upside), $500 low; $NET — $155 high (39% upside), $95 low.

    Both benefited from the pandemic (i.e. increased need for software tools and security for work-from-home). But in recent months, their unprofitability made them unpopular…

    • According to research by ACG Partners (via SA), of the 100 software stocks tracked by ACG, the 50 least unprofitable fell 29% vs. a 10% drop in the 50 more profitable ones.

    How are we doing? Despite a large drop in stock prices, earnings reports show the cloud business’ fundamentals to be intact — with continued earnings and sales growth…

    • Those that reported earnings include Bill, Qualtrics, ServiceNow, and Fortinet — which beat expectations and rose post-earnings.
    • They’re moving back up in reflection of their fundamentals — as investors may have oversold.

    Cloud wreckage: It’s too soon to call a bottom on growth stocks — especially with an interest rate increase expected in March. But it doesn’t hurt to pick up strong companies beaten down for external reasons — and holding for the long-term.

    More cloud earnings next week: Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Wix (NASDAQ:WIX), Appian (NASDAQ:APPN), Dropbox (NASDAQ:DPX).

    Dive deeper: Here’s why the correction in cloud stocks may only be temporary.

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