Stocks remained in a holding pattern on Tuesday morning, with investors still torn about what the future is likely to bring. Earnings reports for the first quarter haven't been as bad as many had feared, but there's almost no visibility about what the second quarter is likely to bring, and that has some market participants reluctant to put too much faith in the economy's resiliency in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Just before 11 a.m. EDT today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 1.18%) was up 36 points to 24,258. The S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.26%) fell 1 point to 2,929, but the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 1.99%) gained ground, rising 16 points to 9,209.
Many investors have turned to cloud computing stocks as a refuge from the coronavirus bear market, and there have been a lot of success stories in the space. Companies like Datadog (DDOG -0.95%) and Eventbrite (EB -0.72%) have taken different paths toward trying to tap the power of the cloud, but they've both brought innovative solutions to their respective industries. Unfortunately, only one of those companies gave investors the good news they'd hoped to see in its latest earnings report.
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All bark and no bite? Not Datadog
Shares of Datadog soared 20% Tuesday morning, adding to impressive gains over the past month. Many investors have been impressed with the reliable growth that subscription-as-a-service stocks have continued to provide even under the pressure of the coronavirus outbreak, and Datadog's latest numbers confirmed the hopes of its shareholders.
Revenue jumped 87% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the year-ago period. The company saw a huge rise in the number of big clients signing up for its data monitoring and analytics platform, as Datadog now boasts 960 customers generating $100,000 or more in annual recurring revenue.
The big jump in customers interested in making better use of their data led Datadog not just to offer guidance for the full 2020 year but also to make it look extremely promising. The company sees full-year revenue coming in between $555 million and $565 million, which would imply a growth rate of 53% to 56% from 2019 levels. That's roughly $30 million more in sales than investors were looking to see.
Datadog is showing that top businesses can prosper even in tough times. Shareholders are willing to pay premium prices for that kind of growth, and the emerging tech company shows no signs of lying down and rolling over anytime soon.
Eventbrite dims
The news wasn't nearly as good for Eventbrite, whose shares moved in the opposite direction. The event-planning software company's stock dropped almost 20% Tuesday morning following its earnings report.
Eventbrite has taken a huge hit from the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. Revenue plunged 40% from year-ago levels, due largely to refunded ticket sales from events that were canceled due to the pandemic. That drop in sales caused losses to soar, as the company had to set aside more than $76 million in anticipation of additional refunds and charge-backs.
CEO Julia Hartz tried to put a long-term spin on Eventbrite's situation. "While the world may not be gathering today, the desire for human connection is stronger than ever," Hartz said, "and we see this desire matched every day by the entrepreneurialism of event creators."
The good news for Eventbrite is that it secured an extra $225 million in short-term financing in order to give it liquidity to get through the toughest part of the pandemic. Nevertheless, with so much uncertainty about what post-coronavirus life is going to look like, shareholders are justifiably cautious about whether Eventbrite will return to its former growth trajectory.
