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DOCN Rises 11% in 6 Months: How Should Investors Play the Stock?

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DigitalOcean (DOCN - Free Report) shares gained 10.6% in the last six months, outperforming the Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s appreciation of 6% but underperforming the Zacks Internet – Software industry’s return of 13.5%.

DOCN shares have also outperformed peers like Google (GOOGL - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) in the same time frame. While GOOGL shares appreciated 5.8%, MSFT shares have lost 3.5% in the last six months.

DOCN’s performance can be attributed to its strong portfolio of innovative solutions and an expanding partner base, which have driven adoption across high-growth sectors like AI/ML, cybersecurity and data analytics.

DOCN’s Earnings Estimate Trend Steady

For the fourth quarter of 2024, DOCN expects revenues to be $199-$201 million, representing approximately 11% growth at the midpoint. The non-GAAP diluted earnings are expected to be between 27 cents per share and 32 cents per share.

For the full year 2024, DOCN expects revenues to be $775-$777 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 12% at the midpoint. The non-GAAP diluted earnings are expected to be between $1.70 per share and $1.75 per share.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DOCN’s fourth-quarter revenues is pegged at $200.22 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 10.7%. The consensus mark for earnings is currently pegged at 35 cents per share, unchanged over the past 30 days and indicating a year-over-year decline of 20.45%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DOCN’s 2024 revenues is pegged at $775.91 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 11.98%. The consensus mark for 2024 earnings is currently pegged at $1.76 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days, and indicating year-over-year growth of 10.69%.

DOCN beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 21.29%.

Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.

Strong Portfolio & Rich Partner Base Aid DOCN’s Prospects

DigitalOcean’s strong portfolio has been a key driver of its top-line growth. With recent innovations like larger droplet configurations, GPU-accelerated infrastructure and enhanced backup options, DOCN is catering to large-scale and high-performance workloads. Its offerings are being adopted across diverse sectors like cybersecurity, data analytics and AI/ML that need greater scalability and security.

DigitalOcean’s expanding partner base includes industry leaders like NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) , Hugging Face, Netlify and MongoDB. Through collaboration with NVIDIA, DOCN offers GPU droplets accelerated by NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and integrates NVIDIA’s Tensor Core GPU worker nodes into its Kubernetes platform, simplifying deployment with advanced NVIDIA tools.

In partnership with Hugging Face, DOCN enables seamless deployment of third-party AI/ML models through one-click deployable models on GPU droplets, further simplifying the model inferencing process.

DOCN’s partnership with Netlify, a leading web development platform, facilitates simple integration between Netlify applications and DOCN-managed MongoDB, boosting the developer experience.

However, DOCN is facing challenges from macroeconomic pressures and intense competition from hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, which have greater resources and well-established ecosystems.

Furthermore, DOCN’s heavy reliance on specific verticals like cybersecurity and data analytics has the potential to expose it to sector-specific risks.

What Should Investors Do With DOCN Stock?

While DOCN is benefiting from its robust portfolio and expanding partnerships, macroeconomic challenges and competitive pressures pose headwinds.

DOCN currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), suggesting that it may be wise for investors to wait for a more favorable entry point in the stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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