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Can HubSpot (HUBS) Stock Emulate '23 Performance This Year?

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Shares of HubSpot, Inc. (HUBS - Free Report) surged 100.8% in 2023, driven by improved market demand across its portfolio on the back of a flexible business model and solid cash flow. Earnings estimates for the current and next fiscal year have increased a stellar 100.8% and 71.8%, respectively, since January 2023, implying robust inherent growth potential.

With healthy fundamentals, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock appears primed for a similar performance in 2024 as well. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Growth Drivers

Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot provides inbound marketing and sales applications over the cloud. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor helps businesses attract more customers through search engine optimization (SEO), social media, blogging, website content management, marketing automation, e-mail, customer relationship management (CRM), analytics and reporting.

HubSpot is increasingly focusing on collecting and enriching customers with extensive, unified data pulled from website visits, marketing e-mails, sales calls and more. The acquisition of Clearbit, a B2B data provider for marketing intelligence, will further accelerate its vision. The integration of Clearbit premier information pool with HubSpot AI will facilitate the development of more powerful, advanced and accurate AI capabilities.

HubSpot’s inbound marketing and sales applications enable businesses to easily reach, acquire and retain customers through traditional marketing tools like cold calls, print advertisements and e-mail. The company’s strategic priority is to deliver a world-class front-office platform by investing in anchor hubs and innovating new emerging hubs. The growing adoption of inbound applications has helped develop the marketing agency partner network. Management’s focus on integrating generative AI to drive innovation and add more value to customers is likely to reap long-term benefits.

The company has significant scope in cross-selling its products to the existing customer base. The One HubSpot initiative is a key growth driver. In addition, HubSpot's App Marketplace offers a customer-centric solution by making it simple for companies to find and seamlessly connect the integrations to grow their businesses. As companies prioritize a digital-first approach, it is likely to create more opportunities for developers to build new integrations that support every stage of the customer journey.

HubSpot primarily targets mid-market businesses, comprising companies with 10 to 2,000 employee strength. This market is mostly underpenetrated, which presents a significant growth opportunity for the company. Moreover, HubSpot is expanding its geographic footprint rapidly and currently has international offices in 12 different locations worldwide with a customer base in more than 120 countries. This augurs well for the long-term growth of the company.

It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 30.6% and delivered an earnings surprise of 35.7%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

Other Key Picks

Workday Inc. (WDAY - Free Report) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 13.24%. In the last reported quarter, it delivered an earnings surprise of 9.29%. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 26.5%.

Workday is a provider of enterprise-level software solutions for financial management and human resource domains. The company’s cloud-based platform combines finance and HR in a single system that makes it easier for organizations to provide analytical insights and decision support.

Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM - Free Report) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2, delivered an earnings surprise of 2.2%, on average, in the trailing four quarters. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 12.5%.

Qualcomm is one of the largest manufacturers of wireless chipsets based on baseband technology. The company is focusing on retaining its leadership in 5G, chipset market and mobile connectivity with several technological achievements and innovative product launches. It is facilitating the seamless transition to super-fast 5G networks, delivering low-power resilient multi-gigabit connectivity with unprecedented range and Qualcomm's best-in-class security. This, in turn, offers the flexibility and scalability needed for broad and fast 5G adoption through accelerated commercialization by OEMs.

Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR - Free Report) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2, is a leading provider of networking solutions and communication devices. The company develops, designs and sells products that help build network infrastructure used for services and applications based on a single Internet protocol network worldwide. Juniper offers a broad range of routing, switching and security products.

It delivered an earnings surprise of 6.5%, on average, in the trailing four quarters. Juniper has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 9.9%. It has a VGM Score of B.

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