In the video below, Motley Fool portfolio manager David Meier and managing editor Eric Bleeker discuss tech events over the past week.
Throughout 2012, momentum companies that often exhibited little to no profitability but high revenue growth were some of the market's top performers. Well-known stocks like Netflix and Tesla epitomized the trend. Since the Nasdaq hit new highs in early March, however, many of these momentum stocks have seen vicious pullbacks.
Eric highlights two highfliers that he feels should be added to investor watchlists after recent drops. He singles out LinkedIn (LNKD.DL), which is off 43% since hitting its 52-week high last September, and Splunk (SPLK), a stock off 45% from its February peak.
First up, LinkedIn, whose shares more than doubled on their first day trading back in 2011. The IPO mania has kept many investors away from its shares, believing LinkedIn simply too expensive. However, Eric notes that the company has continued to deliver strong results since its IPO, and now trades for about 40 times trailing operating cash flow.That's far from "cheap." Yet, the recruiting industry is extremely lucrative and LinkedIn sits at the center of it. That gives the company tremendous long-term potential, and companies with that kind of opportunity rarely become "cheap" by conventional metrics while still in their strong growth phases.
On the more speculative end, Eric talks about Splunk's continued fall. While he acknowledges that the company's business model currently doesn't match up with that of a $6 billion company, he believes Splunk is ideally suited for the next generation of Big Data.
