What happened
Shares of Equinix (EQIX -2.70%) rose 65.6% in 2019, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The data center and networking hub operator didn't rest exclusively on any single event, but kept the pressure up with a steady stream of impressive earnings reports.
So what
Equinix met or beat Wall Street's earnings estimates in all four of last year's earnings reports. Each report triggered a next-day share price jump between 3% and 7%, except for a smaller 1.5% increase after the third-quarter update at the end of October. As an indicator of how Equinix's business is performing, that third-quarter report showed the slowest top-line growth of any quarter in the last three years but still clocked in at a respectable 11% year-over-year increase.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
The company is expanding its already robust global footprint by adding data centers around the planet. In the third quarter, Equinix opened up nine new facilities in places like Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Florida. The leading growth driver among target markets is found in the media industry these days, as a plethora of traditional media giants are starting up their own video-streaming services. Equinix's network hubs often serve as great distribution hubs for digital media, pairing global reach with the data quality and low-latency connections you get from a local networking center.
Equinix has operated under a tax-effective real estate investment trust (REIT) structure for five years now, and it's easy to spot where the REIT idea was introduced in profit-tracking charts like the one below (spoiler alert: it's right in the middle):
