Macroeconomic uncertainty continues to weigh on the stock market this year. The growth-focused Nasdaq Composite is down 32% from its high, and many individual growth stocks got hit even harder. For instance, Datadog (DDOG) and Fiverr International (FVRR) saw share prices plunge roughly 54% and 75%, respectively, this year and both stocks currently sit near 52-week lows.
Nothing material has changed about the business operations of Datadog or Fiverr, and the future still looks bright for both businesses. Some investors have simply lost their taste for richly valued equities and other potentially volatile assets. But for patient investors, now is a great time to pick up a few shares of these two remarkable growth stocks.
Here’s why.
1. Datadog: The pack leader in application performance monitoring
In 2010, Datadog launched its first product, a platform for real-time data integration. But the company has since innovated at a remarkable pace, building out a robust suite of monitoring and security software, as well as a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) engine. Today its platform helps thousands of businesses keep their digital ecosystems performant and secure, and it leans on AI to reduce time to resolution through proactive insights and automated root cause analysis.
Datadog also developed more than 500 out-of-the-box integrations, allowing customers to deploy its software quickly and easily. Additionally, Datadog is cloud-agnostic — its platform can be deployed across all public clouds and private data centers — and that gives it an edge over cloud service providers like Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT), both of which have reason to favor their own cloud infrastructure.
In June, research company Gartner recognized Datadog as the leader in application performance monitoring and observability for the second consecutive year, citing its broad portfolio and AI engine as key strengths. But Datadog also achieved a strong market presence in other software verticals, including cloud infrastructure monitoring, server monitoring, and network monitoring.
Financially, Datadog delivers remarkable results on a consistent basis. Its customer count increased 29% to 21,200 over the past year, and its net retention rate exceeded 130% in 20 consecutive quarters. That means the average customer is spending north of 30% more each year. As a result, revenue rocketed 79% to $1.4 billion over the past year, and free cash flow more than doubled to reach $354 million.
Going forward, investors should expect more of the same. Datadog has always been a trailblazer. For instance, it was the first company to unify the three pillars of observability — metrics, traces, and logs — on a single platform. And that capacity for innovation should keep Datadog on the cutting edge of performance monitoring software.
With that in mind, the company estimates its addressable market at $42 billion this year, but management expects that figure to reach $53 billion by 2025. And with shares trading at 18.6 times sales — a bargain compared to the three-year average of 38.5 times sales — now is a good time to buy this growth stock.
2. Fiverr International: The gateway to the gig economy
Fiverr is a cornerstone of the gig economy. Its marketplace-style platform connects buyers and sellers of digital services. The buyers (businesses) benefit from access to a global pool of talent, while sellers (freelancers) get the freedom to work whenever and wherever they choose. The Fiverr catalog comprises over 550 digital service categories that span nine verticals, including graphics and design, video and animation, and programming.
That alone is hardly revolutionary, but Fiverr differentiates its platform through adjacent products and services. It offers marketing tools, learning content, and task management software to freelancers, and it provides freelancer management and collaboration tools to businesses. Fiverr more recently launched Togetherr, an AI-powered platform that builds freelancer teams (from a highly vetted pool of talent) for specific brands’ projects.
Those value-added products are an important growth driver. Active buyers on Fiverr increased 6% to 4.2 million over the past year, and spending per buyer climbed 14% to $259. In turn, revenue climbed 29% to $326 million and free cash flow jumped 6% to $29 million. But no metric is more remarkable than Fiverr’s take rate (revenue as a percentage of total spend), which clocked in at 29.8% in the most recent quarter. That means Fiverr monetizes its business much more effectively than rival Upwork (UPWK), which achieved a take rate of 15% during the same time period.
In the near term, high inflation may be a headwind for Fiverr, as businesses may scale back on their freelancer workforce. But the long-term investment thesis is still intact. According to Statista, nearly 87 million people in the U.S. will work as freelancers by 2027, meaning more than half of the workforce will participate in the gig economy. For that reason, Fiverr puts its addressable market at $247 billion, leaving a long runway for future growth.
With that in mind, shares currently trade at three times sales, their cheapest valuation in three years. That creates a buying opportunity for risk-tolerant investors.
— Trevor Jennewine
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Source: The Motley Fool