The Growth Of Remote Workflow Stocks In A Year Unlike Any Other

The pandemic forced companies into finding ways for employees to work remotely from home. In order to make this a possibility, companies harnessed technology to allow businesses to continue to operate virtually.

In 2020, large tech companies such as Facebook Inc FB and Alphabet Inc GOOGL advised employees they could continue to work from home through summer 2021.

Others such as Twitter Inc TWTR, Zillow Group Inc Z and Square Inc SQ took a step further and announced that employees could continue to work remotely forever.

Beginning in March 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns began in the U.S., the shares of companies with the technology to make working from home a reality have soared.

Why It Matters: Salesforce.com Inc CRM shares are up 45% over the last year, while Atlassian Corporation PLC TEAM shares have risen over 90% in the same time period.

More drastically, shares in Slack Technologies Inc WORK have soared over 100%, while Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM has seen its shares surge over 280%.

These names have become popular in trading and investing circles since the pandemic began, and all four companies have also demonstrated continued revenue growth and record numbers of new customers during this time.

For the second quarter of 2021, Atlassian added a record number of 11, 617 new customers. On Jan. 28, the company reported revenue of $501.4 million for the quarter, an increase of 22.66% year over year, and adjusted EPS of 37 cents, unchanged on a year-over-year basis.

See Also: What The FAANG CEOs Think About The Work-From-Home Environment

Salesforce released fourth-quarter earnings Feb. 25, with adjusted EPS of $1.04 beating a 75-cent estimate and $5.82 billion in sales topping a $5.68-billion Street estimate.

On Jan. 28, Salesforce announced its plan to acquire Slack Technologies Inc WORK in a $27-billion deal.

Slack reported fourth-quarter results March 4. Billings rose 41% year-over-year to $359.9 million, and the company said it added 14,000 paid customers for a total of 156,000.

The earnings loss of 1 cent per share beat a Street estimate of a 3-cent loss, and sales of $250.6 million topped a $239.41-million estimate. 

Zoom reported fourth-quarter earnings Mar. 1, posting adjusted EPS of $1.22 against a 79-cent estimate and sales of $882.5 million, exceeding the $811.77-million Street estimate.

What’s Next: Although most of these work-from-home stocks have slightly retraced from all-time-highs, it doesn’t look as though they’ll be fading away anytime soon.

Investors will be watching as the economy reopens and vaccination rates increase to see how many companies are able to maintain remote operations and which companies choose to recall staff back to the office.