Top stock picks for the week: March 1, 2021

Mar 1 2021, 2:00 pm

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March is officially here, marking slightly less cold weather and also nearly one whole year since the stock market had its largest sell-off in history. The gravity of the economic impact of the pandemic shocked the world, and companies amazed us with their resiliency, many successfully pivoting to a digital capacity.

One year on and these companies—in e-commerce, electronic document signing, streaming services, and even online pet supplies—are still experiencing impressive growth. In light of this anniversary, here are stock picks of some of the pandemic’s most solid digital companies.

DocuSign

It’s no secret that Covid boosted everything digitally—shopping, meetings, yoga classes, you name it. And contract signing is no exception. Stocks of digital signature company DocuSign (DOCU) have seen growth of 178% over the past 12 months and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

The company is especially popular in the real estate industry, which has also seen a lot of growth over the past 12 months, particularly with those seeking out an alternative from urban living. With the busiest time for real estate (spring) on our doorstep, DocuSign stocks are likely to deliver some strong returns.

Chewy

Recession-proof industries are an investors dream come true. And luckily for those with shares in the pet industry, the money spent on furry friends has proven consistent, even in troubling economic times. In fact, it would seem that due to all the social isolation, consumers are actually spending more on their pets during the pandemic than ever.

Case in point: online pet supply retailer Chewy (CHWY). The company’s stock grew 310% over the last year, closing at record high of $118.69 this February. The $100 billion pet supply market continues to experience high growth and with Chewy expected to report Q4 earnings in April, now is a great time to buy stocks.

PayPal

Another company that massively benefited from last year’s e-commerce explosion is PayPal. Although the company was already successful, in February it reported that the amount of payments made through the service had increased 31% year-over-year, with 72.7 million new accounts.

Combine this with the fact that PayPal owns mobile payment transaction app Venmo with the company’s addition of PayPal’s crypto capabilities in November, and it’s not hard to see why PayPal is a great company to invest in right now and for the future.

Roku

Business is currently booming for digital media player hardware brand Roku (ROKU). The company offers affordable access to streaming media from various online services and made its first model in collaboration with Netflix in 2008.

Roku is currently a market leader in the US streaming services market. In fact, business has been so good for the company, it sold more smart TVs in the US in 2020 than Samsung, LG, and Vizio.

So it makes sense then that the company’s stock has been up 251% over the past year. Roku also just released its impressive earnings report, showing revenue is up 58% year-over-year.

Shopify

Shopify is a multinational e-commerce company and Canada’s most valuable company (nbd).  The company that’s headquartered in Ottawa provides affordable and user-friendly solutions for retailers to make their own online store—handling everything from payment processing to shipping.

The company has been having extraordinary growth ever since it went public in 2015, but add a pandemic into the mix, and it’s not hard to see why its shares increased in value by 162% over the last year. On Black Friday in 2020, Shopify’s businesses recorded $5.1 billion in sales, up 76% from the year prior.

Although Shopify stock has declined by 12% in the last two weeks, as the economy recovers in 2021 and consumers start to spend more, so likely will transactions.

Lightspeed

Montreal-based point-of-sale and e-commerce software provider Lightspeed also had a very successful 2020, with its stock rising from $12 to $90. This revenue skyrocketed from heightened levels of e-commerce transactions in 2020.

Like Shopify, Lightspeed has seen a dip recently. But since so much of its revenue relies on transactions in physical spaces like restaurants and stores, once these reopen in 2021, the company is likely to see another huge surge in revenue.

JD.com

JD.com aka Jingdong is China’s second-largest e-commerce company. Although stocks of the company fell in 2018 when the Chinese economy suffered due to US trade issues, it’s seen solid growth due to Covid’s e-commerce boom and over the last 12 months, the company has seen an increase of 145%.

Some investors are worried that JD.com may be delisted as part of the US’s attempt to make Chinese companies adhere to US standards, however, if this does end up happening, the process will take at least three years to complete, giving investors plenty of buffer time.


Market Buzz contributor has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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