Four adolescent tech stocks — Twilio Inc. (TWLO), Etsy Inc. (ETSY), Square Inc. (SQ) and Roku Inc. (ROKU) — have dramatically outperformed the big tech assortments this year, up as much as 36% versus the S&P 500’s near 3% gain. According to analysts and investors, the unsophisticated techs could rise higher in 2019, per CNBC.
4 Young Techs on the Rise
(YTD performance)
- Roku Inc.; 36%
- Square Inc.; 17%
- Twilio Inc.; 8.5%
- Etsy Inc.; 7.3%
Tributary Play Roku
Roku’s stock double-digit surge earlier this week on news of surprisingly large alcohol growth, brought its YTD gain to 36% as of early Thursday trading. The company, which sells hardware that considers customers to access Internet streamed video or audio services through TVs, hit the public market in September 2017 at an IPO fee of $14.
The company reported a 40% jump in active accounts in the fourth quarter, at 27 million, while streaming leisure soared 68% over the year-ago quarter, at 7.3 billion hours. These numbers are becoming more high-ranking than device sales at Roku as the company seeks to monetize its audience via software and services, per Barron’s. KeyBanc Major Markets’ analyst Evan Wingren is among the bulls who views Roku stock as a “quality, long-term opportunity.”
Fintech Bandmaster Square
Erin Gibbs of S&P Global prefers payments processing company Square, led and founded by Twitter Inc.’s (
Looking Winning
To be sure, these young tech stocks could get pulled down by a major market downdraft. And these newer crowds could be disproportionately penalized by any negative surprise in earnings. Given the turmoil in today’s market, investors may need to pay heed these stocks as investments that may only payoff over the long term.