With millions under stay-at-home orders, many have turned to Zoom Video Communications'(ZM -0.99%) video meeting software for work, class, or even virtual happy hours. Its brand is becoming ubiquitous. It's so widely used in higher education that college students joke that they attend Zoom University, and the digitally native "gen Z" generation quip that they now know what the "Z" stands for.
There's a lot to like about this company. Let's dive in and see why this could be a great buy-and-never-sell stock, and wrap up with a must-not-be-ignored fact for prospective investors.
1. It can scale
Zoom's daily usage numbers have seen unprecedented growth from 10 million in December to over 200 million in March. It had been preparing for demand surges with tens of thousands of additional servers readily available to deploy across 17 data centers around the globe. But even founder and CEO Eric Yaun indicated that usage is "far surpassing what we expected" and that "supporting this influx of users has been a tremendous undertaking and our sole focus."
2. It's building goodwill
In response to the pandemic, Zoom has made a huge commitment to K-12 education programs by providing its basic service free. The response has been tremendous. Teachers in 90,000 schools across 20 countries are now hosting video meetings for up to 100 participants with no limits on video call time.
Zoom is becoming a part of everyday life for millions. Image source: Getty Images
3. Employees love working there
Glassdoor, a third-party data collection platform on companies, reports that 96% of Zoom employees would recommend their employer to a friend, and 98% approve of the job CEO Eric Yuan is doing. Happy employees are productive employees.
4. It's profitable and has a solid balance sheet
Unlike many of its tech company peers, Zoom is profitable, even on a GAAP basis. It posted $25.3 million in net income for full-year 2019, an impressive 4.1% of the top line.
As of January 31, 2020, the company had $855 million in cash and marketable securities and no long-term debt.
5. It's growing like crazy
The most recent quarter's revenue was up 78% over the previous year. 2019 full-year revenues were up 88%. In its earnings call from early March, management projected 2020 revenues to grow 45% to 47% year-over-year.
Much of its recent growth has been with the free offering, but even if a small percentage of those convert to a paid subscription, it's likely to blow by those numbers.
6. It's winning large enterprises
HSBC (HSBA -0.26%) signed on with 290,000 users. Johnson and Johnson (JNJ -1.15%) has 60,000 using the service. Veeva (VEEV -0.71%) has adopted Zoom as its standard for its 3,000 employees and integrated its video chat functionality into its software. Overall, customers paying over $100,000 annually grew an amazing 86% last quarter.
7. It's investing in the platform
Zoom's annual report indicates 20% of its engineering staff is dedicated to developing "on-demand, customer-requested features," and last year it released 300 new software enhancements.
But Zoom is also agile. With the extreme growth in demand, as of April 1 the CEO has frozen all enhancements and moved all of its engineering resources to focus on its "biggest trust, safety, and privacy issues."
8. It's founder run
CEO Eric Yuan founded the company in 2011 to create a video platform that just works. He has significant skin in the game with 16.5% of outstanding shares as of January 31, 2020. Foolish investors love investing in founder-led companies, as studies have shown that these businesses perform better over the long run.
9. It's got exceptional ability to "land and expand"
Many corporate customers start out with just a few users and then expand usage over time. One large retailer started with a base of 260 users and over a two-year period ramped up to 192,000 licenses, 10,000 phones, and 2,000 meeting rooms. Its sticky platform results in impressive net dollar retention that's exceeded 130% for the last seven quarters.
10. It's got a huge addressable market
Zoom has an enormous opportunity with 200 million businesses, 90 million conference rooms, and 1.1 billion knowledge workers globally. The estimated addressable market is $43 billion, almost 70 times its trailing-12-month revenues of $622 million.
11. It brings happiness
A core tenet at the company is to deliver happiness. With millions stuck at home practicing social distancing, many have turned to Zoom to connect with friends and colleagues. Even late-night show host Jimmy Fallon and his band brought smiles to viewers with a Zoom-powered rendition of "Stuck in the Middle" on a recent episode of The Tonight Show.
An important note before you jump in
As with any investment, you shouldn't invest money that you'll need for the next three-to-five years, and you should size your position accordingly to match your risk tolerance. This growth stock has risen roughly 80% since the beginning of the year and has a sky-high bubble-zone price-to-sales ratio of 54. If the company fails to meet heightened expectations, the stock price could take a hit.
If you're interested in being a part of this stock's bright future, buy a small stake now and add to your position over time. You'll be happy you did.
