What happened
Shares of Anaplan (PLAN) rose 12.4% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The company reported its first quarter earnings report late in the month, but that actually caused a drop in the stock price, after an early month rally.
The cloud-based connected planning software company seemed to benefit throughout the month from investors betting on the continued adoption of new-age enterprise planning and software products, as people began to work from home and customers access products and services more on a digital basis amid the coronavirus.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
During the month, many technology stocks and cloud-based software stocks reported solid earnings, fueling growing optimism that the COVID-19 outbreak could spark an acceleration in cloud-based enterprise software adoption, which would benefit Anaplan over the long term.
That sent shares of Anaplan skyward during May, until its own earnings report late in the month. While Anaplan did exhibit 36.9% revenue growth and adjusted (non-GAAP) net loss per share of $0.10, both ahead of analyst expectations, shares fell as the company reported bookings growth of only 10%. Bookings incorporates the change in deferred revenue along with revenue growth, so the lower bookings figure means Anaplan booked less new business during the quarter than revenue would indicate.
Since Anaplan's enterprise planning software is usually employed by the highest-level finance executives in any organization, it was perhaps more heavily affected by the coronavirus than other peers, since Anaplan usually goes for higher-dollar initial deployments.
Now what
While Anaplan's stock fell back a bit after its earnings report, it still seems like a company set to benefit from the increased digitization of the enterprise. My colleague Nick Rossolillo is optimistic that Anaplan's growth can bounce back from the deployment delays caused by the coronavirus, and I'm inclined to agree.
Enterprise resource planning is perhaps more critical than ever in this chaotic environment in which data changes quickly by the day. That means more enterprises could use the benefits Anaplan's products provide, making the stock still look like a good choice today for those interested in high-growth software companies.
