Bears got the better of last week, particularly near the end, as investors got nervous on Friday when the yield curve inverted. But it wasn't a bad week for all shareholders. There were still hundreds of stocks hitting new high-water marks earlier in the week.
RingCentral (RNG 4.25%), Twilio (TWLO 2.06%), and Tencent Music (TME +5.57%) were some of the more surprising names to establish fresh all-time highs last week. Let's see what lifted these stocks higher -- at least earlier in the week.
Image source: Getty Images.
RingCentral
The office phone may not seem like a lucrative product for investors, but RingCentral is disrupting the niche with its cloud-based platform that updates the way we perceive enterprise communications. Companies big and small pay as little as $15.99 a month per person for a system that routes incoming calls to IP phones, PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Productivity gets a boost, as suddenly any device can be used to participate in conference calls, video conferencing, and even old-school faxing.
Revenue growth accelerated to a 34% increase in RingCentral's latest quarter, and those heady gains in a sleepy industry are turning heads. Analysts can't keep up with RingCentral, as it routinely smokes Wall Street's profit targets by double-digit percentage margins.
| Quarter | EPS (Estimate) | EPS (Actual) | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2017 | $0.06 | $0.07 | 17% |
| Q1 2018 | $0.12 | $0.16 | 33% |
| Q2 2018 | $0.15 | $0.19 | 27% |
| Q3 2018 | $0.16 | $0.19 | 19% |
| Q4 2018 | $0.23 | $0.18 | 28% |
Data source: RingCentral.
The stock hit a new all-time high on Thursday, after Raymond James analyst Brian Peterson reiterated his bullish rating on the stock. He thinks 30% top-line growth is sustainable in the near term as momentum builds in favor of RingCentral's platform.
Check out the latest earnings call transcripts for RingCentral, Twilio, and other companies we cover.
Twilio
A favorable analyst note also helped lift Twilio to an all-time high, but unlike with RingCentral's niche, Twilio is in the right place at the right time. It's the top dog for in-app solutions for communication tasks, and given the way folks are leaning more on their mobile devices to hail rides, stream video, and tackle customer service issues, it's easy to see why developers are flocking to Twilio's platform to solve problems without the need for users to leave their apps.
The stock hit another all-time high on Thursday, but it retreated on Friday even after Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Turrin lifted his price target from $130 to $150.
The reason the new high was a surprise is that the stock skyrocketed 278% last year, making it the biggest gainer in 2018 among large caps. A breather after a heady gain is natural, but Twilio stock has surged by another 45% in 2019.
Tencent Music
One stock that couldn't close out the week near its peak was Tencent Music. China's leading streaming music site hit an all-time high on Tuesday, hours before its quarterly report disappointed the market.
Revenue grew 50.5% for Tencent Music in the fourth quarter, but that was slightly less than the analysts were expecting. Tencent Music's top line also grew faster than its bottom line, an expected development but perhaps unsettling to those who had seen margins widen in the recent past. The stock has beaten the market since the company went public late last year, but now there's pressure to make sure it doesn't stumble next time around.
