This article is part of a series tracking the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on major businesses. For other articles and earlier versions, go here.
“The pandemic’s most enduring impact will be as an accelerant,” accelerating dynamics already present in society, wrote New York University Stern School of Business adjunct professor of marketing Scott Galloway, in his book last year, “Post Corona.” And acceleration was the key word for both young and early tech trends.
“I think earnings will be very, very impressive,” said Brendan Connaughton, founder and managing partner, Catalyst Private Wealth in San Francisco. “What I think is even more impressive is that the revenue supporting tech is going to be through the roof.” For the full year, Blackledge expects Amazon to report $473 billion in revenue, a 22.5% jump compared with 2020, and to achieve a 13.7% compounded annual growth rate over the next five years.
On a quarterly basis, Zoom’s growth will begin to slow after its fiscal first quarter, ending April 30, when revenue growth will peak at about 176%, and then fall back into double-digit growth for the ensuing quarters. On the corporate side, she said the other interesting dynamic is what companies will be doing as they reconfigure their offices for the partial return of their workforce in what is expected to be a hybrid situation across the globe. “More companies are starting to look at it, they are still trying to figure out what they need.” Lopez is an example of someone who left San Francisco and moved back to the East Coast to be closer to both sides of her family.
HP Inc. HPQ, -0.98% will likely see its revenue peak for fiscal 2021 in the quarter it already reported in February, based on FactSet estimates. For the full year fiscal 2021, HP is currently forecast to see revenue grow about 7% to $60.8 billion, its biggest growth since fiscal 2018, thanks to both boosts in PCs and its previously lagging printing business.
Reith of IDC noted that Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, -0.47% GOOG, -0.38% Chromebooks also got a huge boost in the pandemic, with its lower prices appealing to the education market.
Won’t last.... yet the top holdings of most index funds have been, are currently, and will continue to be tech heavy.
95% only bad news(