Zoom Video Communications
is struggling to join in this year’s rally in technology stocks. Even a surprise earnings beat didn’t seem enough to dispel concerns about lower corporate spending and competition from rivals such as
Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company’s shares briefly rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading Monday after first-quarter earnings topped expectations. However,
Zoom
(ticker: ZM) shares gave up those gains and were down 0.8% in premarket trading on Tuesday. The stock is up 5% this year so far, against a 22% rise in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index.
KeyBanc analysts led by Thomas Blakey kept a Sector Weight rating on the stock after the earnings report, noting Zoom’s Enterprise segment is expected to slow to somewhere more than 3% growth in the second half of the company’s fiscal year, compared with 13% growth for its first quarter.
“We believe Zoom remains well-positioned to benefit from secular hybrid work and related digital collaboration trends but remain SW [Sector Weight] given continued growth deceleration,” the KeyBanc analysts wrote.
A key concern for the market is whether Zoom’s growth will be limited by companies cutting back their spending on video-conferencing tools and choosing competitors such as Microsoft (MSFT) and its Teams product. Microsoft recently launched a premium version of its Teams product with artificial-intelligence integration.
“I don’t think that the adjustment that you’re seeing is necessarily related to competition and more due to, as we expected, some distraction internally due to the reorganization,” Zoom’s Chief Fianancial Officer Kelly Steckelberg told analysts on an earnings call, when asked about competitive pressures.
Zoom said in February it would cut 15% of its workforce after rapidly increasing staff numbers to meet increased demand during the Cocid-19 pandemic.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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