SNOW Is Another Test Of Early Stage Tech Growth
I just wrote about cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD) which reports earnings after the close today as a test of early stage tech growth. Perhaps an even purer text is data analytics firm Snowflake (SNOW) which reports Wednesday afternoon. Last year SNOW was a darling of investors with the stock reaching ~$400/shares but this year it has been hit by the same forces that have hit all early stage growth companies. While CRWD has actual profits SNOW does not. With $45 billion market cap they are guiding current year revenue to ~$2 billion. That’s more than 20x revenue – quite an expensive multiple.
From everything I understand the software is great and with data accumulating at a massive pace the use for SNOW’s platform is likely to continue to grow. The question for me is whether the 65% hit to the stock over the last year is enough to bring investors back in if the earnings report is decent. If stocks like CRWD and SNOW – poster children for exactly the kind of stocks that have not worked this year – are washed out at the moment I think that’s worth knowing.