These past couple of weeks have been pretty brutal for tech stock investors as this part of the stock market has seemingly crashed. The combination of fears surrounding inflation, rising interest rates, the pandemic, and now a growing geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe has culminated into a lot of uncertainty. And as many investors now know, uncertainty leads to sharp declines in share prices, especially those of tech companies that typically carry high valuations.
But with such rapid declines, have buying opportunities emerged? I certainly think so. Let’s explore two disruptive tech stocks that I believe have enormous growth potential ahead.
A disruptive tech stock taking on big data
Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) has had a fairly rough run of late. Like many stocks in the ongoing tech market crash, the share price has dropped nearly 60% since November. That brings its 12-month performance to a disappointing -51% return.
So, what does this company do? Elastic is essentially a tool for data searching and analysis. The technology has proven to be essential for countless prominent enterprises. The long client list includes Netflix, which uses it to power its show-searching feature, and Just Eat for finding restaurants near a hungry customer’s location.
Are there risks? Of course. This remains an unprofitable business making it dependent on external financing. Yet with the share price dropping so much, raising capital through equity is less of an attractive option. This means it may have to turn to debt financing to keep the lights on. The group does have $879m (£650m) of cash on its books providing plenty of liquidity for now. But obviously, this won’t last forever.
Having said that, data is quickly becoming the world’s most valuable commodity. As such, the ability to search through and analyse it, is gaining ever more importance. And in my opinion, that creates an exceptional growth opportunity for Elastic. Therefore, while the risk is high, I am considering opening a small position in my portfolio.
Another tech stock sold off in the market crash
Continuing the theme of big data, another tech stock to have caught my attention is MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB). This company is trying to revolutionise the data management industry with its document-oriented database system.
Most databases today are built using relational tables. However, this architecture is over 50 years old and was never designed for handling enormous quantities of information. MongoDB’s solution allows data structures to evolve rapidly without performing time-consuming migrations. And since data points that are frequently used together can be stored in the same location, read & write speeds become near-instant. In layman’s terms, it’s significantly faster than legacy databases provided by industry giants like Oracle.
Of course, taking on massive enterprises isn’t a risk-free process. Switching from a relational table to a document-oriented database is an arduous task that has generated high switching costs for businesses already using the older architecture. In other words, MongoDB could struggle to expand its roster of large clients. And, in turn, its revolution could fail.
But management is fully aware of this and has since begun targeting smaller enterprises, resulting in revenues climbing by an annual average of 57% over the last five years. And with the stock market crash pushing shares down nearly 25% since the start of 2022, I think now could be an excellent buying opportunity for my portfolio.
Zaven Boyrazian has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Elastic and MongoDB. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.
