What happened
Shares of Appian (APPN 1.83%), MongoDB (MDB -0.34%), and The Trade Desk (TTD -1.59%) all jumped on Tuesday. Each of these companies' stocks were up in the mid-double digits at one point before falling slightly. As of the market close, they were up 16%, 9%, and 10%, respectively.
So what
U.S. stock market indices came roaring back to life on Tuesday. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq advanced by 9%, 10%, and 8%, respectively.
The bullish move appears to be linked to the growing anticipation that a coronavirus stimulus bill could be one day closer to being finalized.
In addition, President Trump stated that he wants to roll back many of the restrictions that have been put into place in response to the pandemic by April 12.
Image source: Getty Images.
Traders bid up hundreds of stocks today on the news of a faster-than-expected end to social distancing. Many high growth stocks posted gains that outpaced the market's bullish move.
Appian, MongoDB, and The Trade Desk, all of which are software-as-a-service businesses that are growing rapidly, jumped swiftly in response to the rally.
Now what
It's unclear whether or not a coronavirus stimulus bill would help Appian, MongoDB, or The Trade Desk directly since all of these software makers sell their services to other businesses. However, there's no doubt that a return to a normal business operating environment would greatly benefit all of them.
Appian, which is a leader in the low-code software movement, recently guided for total revenue growth to be about 14% in 2020. That might not sound all that impressive, but a recent accounting standard change is impairing the company's numbers.
In addition, Appian has been placing much less of an emphasis on low margin professional services revenue, which is also dragging down its top line. Cloud subscription revenue, which is high margin and recurring, is expected to grow by about 29% in 2020. That's much more indicative of the company's true growth rate.
MongoDB, which is a leading provider of cloud-based databases, also expects 2020 to be a solid year of growth. Management recently predicted top line growth of about 23% at the midpoint of its guidance. This company has a history of underpromising and overdelivering, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the actual result come in even higher.
The Trade Desk, which provides programmatic ad buying software, is projecting the highest growth rate of the group. Management recently predicted sales to grow at least 30% in 2020 due in part to an "accelerated shift" away from traditional TV in favor of connected TV. This company has also established a history of outperforming its own forecasts, so it's entirely possible that the 30% growth rate is an understatement.
Given the coronavirus uncertainty, investors should probably take all of these growth projects with a grain of salt. There's simply no telling how long the quarantine will last, or how speedy a potential recovery might be.
Then again, all of these companies are in high growth mode and have huge opportunities ahead of them, so even if their growth rates do take a small hit in 2020, that shouldn't matter much.
