Lots of high-growth stocks were absolutely pulverized in the COVID-19-induced sell-off. The markets have since recovered sharply off their March lows, but there are still plenty of bargains to be had.
Which stocks still look incredibly attractive right now? Here's why Paycom Software (PAYC -1.99%), Twilio (TWLO -8.61%), and Globant (GLOB -1.32%) are three top choices.
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Paycom Software
Some industries naturally benefit from high switching costs, meaning that it would be hard for a customer to switch to a competitor's product. The payroll industry is one. Once a company picks a payroll processor, it becomes a huge hassle to switch to a competing product.
This is why I'm so impressed with what Paycom Software has accomplished. Paycom has consistently grown its revenue over the years as it has stolen business away from industry giants like Paychex and ADP. The company's secret sauce is that it provides a cloud-based software suite that handles a wide range of human resource functions, not just payroll. This has convinced lots of companies to make the switch.
Paycom's financial statements have flourished in response. Revenue has grown 300% over the last five years. Operating leverage has allowed net income to grow more than 950% over the same time frame. The stock has been a multi-bagger in response.
2020 is likely to be a rotten year for Paycom. Unemployment is skyrocketing, so Paycom's financials are likely to take a big hit. Wall Street has knocked the share price down more than 30% from its highs in response. While I wouldn't call Paycom's stock "cheap" -- shares trade for roughly 50 times forward earnings -- this is a very high-quality business that should resume its growth trajectory once America goes back to work.
Twilio
Twilio has been a great growth stock since it came public, but it isn't easy to make sense of what this company does. Twilio provides a range of application programming interfaces (APIs) that make it easy for developers to build communication tools into their products. Twilio's APIs handle messaging, voice calls, videos, emails, and more. Twilio charges fractions of pennies each time its APIs are used, so it makes sense for developers to use Twilio's tools rather than build them from scratch.
If you are looking for proof that Twilio's APIs are useful, just check out its customer list. Airbnb, Lyft, Dell, Hulu, Twitter, and Amazon's Twitch are all customers. That's a huge vote of confidence from companies with serious tech chops.
The demand for Twilio's products has been incredibly strong and its growth has been jaw-dropping. Revenue has grown 580% over the last four years, and it's still moving higher. Analysts expect revenue to grow by 26% in 2020 and another 28% in 2021. Those are very healthy numbers.
Twilio's stock isn't cheap -- shares trade for roughly 13 times sales -- but that's considerably lower than it has been at other times in its recent history. With profitability on the horizon and the top line still growing quickly, I think that Twilio is a growth stock that is worth owning.
Globant
Most management teams realize that technology is changing the world and that they need to adapt if they hope to thrive. However, it isn't easy to make big changes. Many companies lack the expertise to take advantage of blockchain, machine learning, virtual reality, and more. How can they keep up?
An increasingly popular answer is to hire Globant, a company that specializes in tech consulting. Globant employs thousands of highly skilled professionals from around the world who receive deep training in the latest technologies and can be dispatched at a moment's notice to help businesses tackle any project that they dream up.
Globant has successfully landed an A-list group of clients from a wide variety of industries that include Disney, LinkedIn, American Express, Coca-Cola, BBVA, and Walmart.Once a client gets onboarded, Globant tends to hang on. More than 90% of Globant's revenue comes from existing customers in any given year.
Globant has come a long way since its founding, but the market for digital services is growing rapidly and is expected to reach $154 billion by 2022. Globant hasn't even come close to capturing 1% of that total, so this is a stock that should be able to grow for years to come. Meanwhile, its share price is down more than 20% from its February highs. That's too good of a deal to pass up.
