Revenues are going up, momentum is strong and yet investors are turning bearish when it comes to big tech. And stock-based compensation is in the firing line.
Mizuho’s veteran technology analyst Gregg Moskowitz summed up the state of utter bewilderment during Atlassian’s earnings call on Friday morning.
The Nasdaq-listed software firm’s shares had plunged 40 per cent this year. But the company was reporting what he described as a “strong quarter” with “great guidance” and announced an acceleration of its buyback program.
Figma staff have watched in horror as the stock has plunged during a 180-day lock up. Bloomberg
The stock dropped 10 per cent.
“We’re in a software twilight zone,” he lamented as he offered his sympathies to a frustrated Atlassian chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes.
The implosion in software stocks – and frankly any capital-light sector – reached a violent peak last week. That shredded the already frail nerves of fund managers, some of whom spent several weeks accumulating these stocks in the misguided faith they were on sale on the basis that fears artificial intelligence posed an existential threat were overblown.
Source: https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/paying-staff-with-shares-is-getting-tougher-for-burnt-software-giants-20260204-p5nzms