September is drawing to a close, leaving just one quarter remaining in the 2022 calendar year. That will probably be a relief for many investors, because this has been an equally challenging year to 2020, when the pandemic first rocked the world. While that triggered a much steeper decline than we're seeing in 2022, it was very short-lived compared to the nine-month slog investors grappled with this time around.
Turning our attention to the new year, it's possible that the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes will have cooled the red-hot inflation that is currently sweeping through the economy. If that happens, high-growth technology stocks that have been crushed in 2022 will likely regain favor among investors.
One of the most important modern technologies continues to be cloud computing, so that's a great place to look as we roll into 2023. Here are two beaten-down stocks in that industry that could experience a resurgence next year, and they might even outperform the rest of the market.
1. DigitalOcean
What is the cloud, exactly? It's growing rapidly in both scope and value, but simply, it's a technology that allows businesses to move their operations online. It can often eliminate the need for clunky on-premise software that constantly requires updates, making the organization nimbler and more efficient. Plus, since applications in the cloud can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, it helps connect workers to their jobs no matter where they are in the world.
DigitalOcean (DOCN +9.44%) is a provider of cloud services, but it focuses on small to mid-sized business customers that have 500 employees or less -- a segment of the industry it says is overlooked by much larger providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. DigitalOcean offers simple solutions like website hosting and data storage, and more complex tools to facilitate application development and video streaming.
NYSE: DOCN
Key Data Points
It competes with the larger players by offering more affordable pricing, which is particularly attractive to start-up businesses. Plus, it provides a library with over 6,000 tutorials to help users get the most out of their cloud experience, and it simplifies deployment with an easy-to-use dashboard which reduces the need for expensive technical staff.
According to an estimate by Grand View Research, the cloud computing industry could be worth more than $1.5 trillion annually by 2030, growing by 15.7% per year. DigitalOcean thinks the cloud market for small to mid-sized businesses will be a $72 billion opportunity this year, but could double to $145 billion by 2025. That's a 26.2% annual growth rate, so DigitalOcean's segment is growing much more quickly than the broader industry.
And since DigitalOcean has generated just $492 million in revenue over the last four quarters from over 623,000 customers, it still has a long runway for growth. With its stock down 48% in 2022 amid the broader tech sell-off, this might be a great chance to buy in ahead of the new year.
2. Snowflake
As the cloud industry continues to expand, more organizations -- particularly large ones -- will find themselves using multiple cloud services providers to fulfill their needs. That creates a series of challenges, particularly around visibility, because extracting value from their data is difficult when it's stored in multiple different locations.
Enter Snowflake (SNOW 0.98%) and its Data Cloud, which is designed to aggregate data across sources to make it accessible and analyzable in the most efficient manner. It's in hot demand, so much so that the largest providers of cloud services have partnered with Snowflake to allow their customers to more easily share data across platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Alphabet's Google Cloud.
NYSE: SNOW
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Being part of the Snowflake ecosystem also allows companies to monetize their data by making it available for purchase and, by the same token, they can also buy data from other providers. The Snowflake marketplace contains actionable information from several industries, from financial services to healthcare.
Snowflake is further evidence that the cloud industry is the place to be for investors. Why? Over the last two quarters -- which have been abysmal for most technology companies -- Snowflake has hired nearly 1,000 additional staff, which is an indication of the company's confidence even in this tough economy. And that confidence was recently validated, because in the recent second quarter of fiscal 2023 (ended July 31), the number of customers spending $1 million or more annually with Snowflake more than doubled year over year to 246.
Analysts are expecting the company to grow its total fiscal 2023 revenue by 70% year over year to $2 billion. In fiscal 2024, it could expand a further 50% to $3.1 billion. That's in a slowing economy, so there's potential for even greater results if conditions improve in the new calendar year. Snowflake stock has declined by 50% in 2022, and that's quite a big discount for a quality company in a fast-growing industry.
