What happened
Shares of Atlassian (TEAM 0.17%) rose 49.8% in the first half of 2020, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The provider of cloud-based project management tools is thriving due the sudden proliferation of remote workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So what
Atlassian's popular suite of business collaboration tools always looked like a good fit for a business world leaning toward more widespread remote work policies, and the company delivered on that promise in spades. The third-quarter report at the tail end of May crushed analyst expectations across the board, as earnings rose 19% year over year on a 47% revenue increase.
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Now what
The company launched both a free version of its core products and a stronger enterprise package backed by a 99.95% uptime commitment, all in the third quarter. These product bundles were a direct response to the high demand amid the COVID-19 crisis, enabling both large and small businesses to take Atlassian's solutions for a spin during a generally challenging business period. Atlassian continues to focus on maximal revenue growth and the company saw it as a mistake when operating margin widened in the second quarter. If executives had seen that period's windfall coming, they would have reinvested it into hiring more software engineers. In other words, Atlassian is a premium growth stock at heart.
