IT companies have proven to be the safest haven for investors during the storm of Covid-19. Below is a list of American technology companies with a market capitalization of at least $5 billion that achieved the best performance in 2020.
-
FASTLY 324%
-
Zoom Video Communications 273%
-
DraftKings 211%
-
Livongo Health 200%
-
Etsy 140%
-
Shopify 139%
-
Bill.com Holdings 137%
-
Zscaler 135%
-
DocuSign 132%
-
Datadog 130%
(Source: Bloomberg. The price change is reported from the beginning of the year until June 30, 2020)
Recently, the market capitalization of Alphabet (GOOGL) surpassed $1 trillion, joining Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, all of which are valued in the trillions. Together, these four giants are worth approximately $5.6 trillion, which is roughly equivalent to the combined value of the next 19 largest American companies: Facebook, Berkshire Hathaway, Visa, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, Mastercard, Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, UnitedHealth, Home Depot, Intel, Nvidia, Verizon Communications, Netflix, AT&T, Adobe, PayPal, Tesla, and Walt Disney.
During quarantine, consumers shifted to online shopping, and this was reflected in stock prices. Amazon's shares rose by 49%, while Etsy became a global marketplace for handmade face masks, with its stock surging nearly 140%. Wayfair's shares more than doubled as the online furniture and home goods platform attracted buyers when they were unable to shop at physical stores. Both Square and PayPal gained 60% due to the increased adoption of electronic payments.
At the same time, the shift to cloud technologies continues to weigh down the stocks of traditional IT companies. IBM lost 10%, HP Inc. 15%, Seagate 19%, and HP 30%. Xerox's shares plummeted by 58%. There is no need for office printers when the offices are empty.
