Zoom's Meteoric Rise Isn't Over: Bernstein

By Christiana Sciaudone

Investing.com -- Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ:ZM)'s got steam.

Bernstein named it a top pick in 2021, even after a stellar 2020, when it grew almost 400% thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic that kept us all at home and working and studying via the service. Shares are up about 1%.

The firm named it a high conviction top pick and said it saw strong growth in 2021, CNBC Pro reported.

“Zoom Phone should contribute substantial revenue in a shorter time frame than many investors expect," Bernstein wrote in a note. "The ~500k new Phone users added in the last 6 months is roughly double the run rate of additions in the prior year.”

Zoom Phone places the company in rivalry against a crowded enterprise telephony service industry, which includes RingCentral (NYSE:RNG), Vonage and Avaya.

Revenue for the quarter ended in October came in at $777 million, up from $166 million in the same period a year earlier. Profit rose from 9 cents per share to 99 cents per share in that time.

Vaccines against the coronavirus have begun to be distributed around the world, but working from home is being seen as a permanent change, helping companies to lower costs and allowing working parents to spend more time with their children (whether or not they want to is another question).

The company has nine buy ratings, 12 holds and one sell, according to data compiled by Investing.com.

Not that Zoom comes cheap. The forward price to earnings ratio for the stock is 129 times. That compares to Vonage's 81 times, Avaya's 5 times and RingCentral's 347 times.

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