Zoom Video Communications (ZM 0.05%) continues to be one of this year's hottest IPOs -- the stock has more than doubled since the company went public at $36 last month. And it's not just the company's share price that is doubling. Revenue for the cloud-based video-conferencing specialist soared 114% in its fiscal 2019 after skyrocketing 148% the year before that.
The kind of attention those numbers have brought to Zoom have driven it to a pretty lofty valuation level. Its stock is now fetching more than 60 times trailing revenue, and there is no earnings multiple for the profitless speedster. But if you think Zoom Video is impressive, you might want to check out RingCentral (RNG -0.79%), Snap (SNAP -2.72%), and Momo (MOMO 0.70%) -- three stocks that share some of its traits at more reasonable market premiums.
Image source: Zoom Video.
RingCentral
Zoom Video obviously isn't the only company using the cloud to deliver enterprise communication services. RingCentral charges as little as $19.99 a month per user, allowing businesses to route inbound calls to IP phones, PCs, tablets, and smartphones. In short, business phone calls can follow employees everywhere, and one of RingCentral's features also happens to be video conferencing.
RingCentral's growth will not blow your mind if you're spoiled by Zoom, but revenue has accelerated in back-to-back years, rising 34% in 2018. It sees top-line gains slowing to a 26% to 28% in 2019, and it posts its first-quarter results after Monday's market close.
Now let's get to valuations, where RingCentral runs circles around the faster-growing Zoom. RingCentral fetches less than 15 times trailing revenue, not cheap by Wall Street standards but a quarter of Zoom's nosebleed ratio. It's also profitable, and adjusted earnings have beaten analyst targets by 17% or better for each of the five past quarters.
Snap
Zoom Video isn't the only stock to have doubled in 2019, and Snap has done it the hard way without having the benefit of a hot and IPO that found Zoom soaring 72% on its first day of trading. Snapchat's parent company has seen its stock soar 114% this year as the "social camera" company takes big steps in its turnaround.
Snapchat reaches 190 million daily active users, and Snap claims that its audience includes 90% of all 13- to 24-year-olds in this country. After a rough debut in 2017 and losing traction with users in 2018, we're seeing sequential growth in users moving higher for the first time in more than a year. Snap isn't profitable, but losses are narrowing and average revenue per user has shot 39% higher over the past year.
Momo
If there's a hot niche in this country, there's a fair chance that there's a company also excelling in China -- and often with healthier profit margins. Momo started as an online dating specialist in that country, but its growth driver these days is its live video broadcasting platform. Live video accounted for 77% of Momo's revenue in its latest quarter, though, unlike Zoom, this is a consumer-facing social platform.
Momo earns a spot on this list because of its low earnings multiple relative to its growth. Though revenue rose 50% in its most recent quarter, the shares can be had for less than 16 times trailing earnings and just 13 times this year's projected profit. Growth is slowing for Momo this year -- just as it will for Zoom Video -- and investing in Chinese growth stocks has its own set of inherent risks. However, the upside is high when the valuation is low for a growing company.
