The stock market is dealing with a lot of uncertainty about inflation, and the concerns among investors were evident on Friday morning even after Thursday's big drop in major market benchmarks. As of 7:30 a.m. ET, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.95%) were down 75 points to 35,064. Futures on the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.33%) had fallen 12 points to 4,486, and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 1.59%) futures had dropped 49 points to 14,652.
Technology stocks have been hit hard during the downturn, both those that offer broad-based tech for customers in all industries and those that concentrate on certain niches to put tech to work. However, a couple of key players using tech to their advantage were on the move higher Friday morning. Below, let's take a closer look at why Zillow Group (Z 1.57%) (ZG 2.21%) and HubSpot (HUBS +1.72%) were gaining ground.
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Zillow looks beyond iBuying
Shares of Zillow Group were up almost 14% in premarket trading Friday morning. The online real estate expert recently changed its strategic vision, but investors were pleased with what they saw from the company's financial report.
Many of Zillow's fourth-quarter numbers were dramatically affected by its decision to wrap up its Zillow Offers home-buying service. Total revenue soared nearly fivefold from year-ago levels as Zillow liquidated its inventory of homes, and net losses ballooned to $261 million for the quarter.
However, Zillow was quick to note that its core internet and technology business was strong. Segment revenue was up 14% year over year, above what Zillow had projected in its previous quarterly report. Mortgages revenue was down 17% from year-ago levels, but much of that was expected given adverse moves in interest rates. The mortgage division performed at the upper end of the range Zillow had predicted.
Zillow still has some challenges to overcome, as traffic to mobile apps and websites was roughly flat at 198 million average monthly users and 2.3 billion visits. However, as the housing market remains robust, investors were pleased to see Zillow's new strategy starting to work in its favor, and that was enough to get Zillow's stock at least to pause in its precipitous drop over the past few months.
HubSpot is still spotting gains
Elsewhere, shares of HubSpot were up more than 8% in premarket trading. The provider of website services reported fourth-quarter financial results that helped give investors more confidence in its future.
Growth remained in fashion at HubSpot. Revenue climbed 47% for the quarter to $369 million, finishing a year with identical 47% year-over-year sales growth to $1.3 billion. Adjusted net income climbed by about 45% to $29.6 million, producing adjusted earnings of $0.40 per share in the fourth quarter.
Some had feared that the influx of customers HubSpot has seen might slow as the rush of traffic created by the COVID-19 pandemic started to ebb. However, HubSpot's most recent metrics didn't confirm those fears, with customer counts jumping 30% over the past 12 months to more than 135,400. Moreover, HubSpot is seeing more revenue from its clients, with average subscription revenue of $10,875, up 11% year over year.
Investors were also pleased with HubSpot's guidance, which called for sales of $381 million to $383 million and earnings of $0.46 to $0.48 per share on an adjusted basis for the first quarter. For the full 2022 year, revenue of $1.72 billion to $1.73 billion and adjusted earnings of $2.34 to $2.42 per share would confirm that HubSpot still has the power to keep expanding over the coming year and beyond.
