After a dodgy end to the summer for equities in general, with the benchmark S&P 500 falling finding itself down more than 10% at one point, it's starting to look like Christmas might have come early for stocks. When it started to look like all the hard-fought gains from the past year had been for naught, fresh data suggested tamed inflation.
The same inflation damaged tech stocks through most of 2022, as the increased interest rates needed to fight it drove up borrowing costs and dimmed profit outlooks. So, with signs that the worst might be behind us, meaning the Fed might be approaching the end of its tightening cycle, investors have plowed back into stocks.
The S&P 500 has just logged its longest winning streak in two years, and analysts are starting to get excited again. In particular, here are two of their most recent upgrades to two stocks in the data tech space.
MongoDB Inc.
MongoDB Inc. (NASDAQ: MDB) rallied from 225% last year through July. You might have believed that shares of MongoDB were well on their way to reclaiming the highs of 2021. But a 30% drop through the end of last month wouldn't have made for pleasant reading, but it's starting to look like this could have opened up a solid buying opportunity.
Earlier this week, the team at Capital One upgraded MongoDB to a bullish Overweight rating, having previously had them rated as equal-weight. The team acknowledged that while the macro environment remains challenging, the company's outlook is bullish enough to drive a recovery rally in its shares.
The cautious yet bullish theme echoed that from Bank of America, who gave MongoDB a Buy rating last month and a $450 price target. They consider the company a best-in-class vendor in the rapidly growing database market, where it’s positioned well to capture market share from more prominent players such as Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT).
From where shares closed on Thursday, Bank of America's price target points to an upside of about 25%. It would put them above July's peak and further bolster the case for completing the return to highs.
Snowflake Inc.
Snowflake Inc. (NASDAQ: SNOW) had been trending toward its all-time high this summer. Shares of Snowflake were never going to do that. They'd been trading in a comparatively narrow range since bottoming out from a 70% drop in June last year. To be fair, this past summer had seen them trend up toward the top of that range, but like MongoDB, they, too, dropped about 30% into last month.
This looks like a solid long-term entry point, too, with Capital One also giving Snowflake shares an Overweight rating in this week's update. They expect a reacceleration of growth through 2024 and 2025, so risk/reward profile feels pretty attractive, with shares not far off all-time lows.
It's the weaker of the two, as seen in the "neutral" rating given by Bank of America last month, while MongoDB was rated a Buy. The team there still expects Snowflake to capture market share due to its status as a first mover, but the company's consumption pricing model is struggling to be the growth engine it was expected to be.
They still got a price target of $195, and from where shares closed on Thursday, that pointed to an upside of at least 25%. If they hit this, it would put them at the top of the range they've been stuck in for the past eighteen months, so their quarterly results will need to be in shipshape to justify a breakout to the north from there.
