What Happened?
Shares of cloud computing platform DigitalOcean (NYSE: DOCN) jumped 16.1% in the morning session after the company reported third-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street's expectations and provided strong revenue guidance for the upcoming quarter. The cloud computing platform's revenue grew 15.7% year-over-year to $229.6 million, exceeding analyst estimates. Profitability was also a bright spot, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.54 beating expectations. The company significantly outperformed on other key metrics, with adjusted EBITDA and annual recurring revenue (ARR) both coming in well ahead of Wall Street's projections. Looking ahead, DigitalOcean guided for fourth-quarter revenue that was also above consensus. However, its earnings guidance for the next quarter fell short of estimates, adding a note of caution for investors.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
DigitalOcean’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 39 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for DigitalOcean and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 1 day ago when the stock dropped 6% on the news that markets became increasingly wary of high valuations following a significant AI-driven rally.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell approximately 1.4% as a wave of caution swept through the market. A key example of this trend is Palantir Technologies, which saw its shares drop around 7% despite reporting record quarterly results that surpassed analyst estimates and raising its full-year revenue outlook. This seemingly contradictory movement highlighted a broader sentiment shift. Investors appeared to be engaging in profit-taking, concerned that the recent surge in AI-related stocks had led to stretched valuations. This broader market caution affected high-growth technology companies that had previously surged on AI optimism but faced increased scrutiny, signaling a potential cooling-off period for the sector. Adding serious weight to this caution, leadership at both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley highlighted the possibility of a correction in the equity markets over the next couple of years. Despite the euphoria driven by AI optimism and the promise of future rate cuts, these banks viewed this cooling-off period not as a disaster, but as a necessary and healthy feature of a long-term bull market.
DigitalOcean is up 31.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $45.20 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $46.69 from February 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of DigitalOcean’s shares at the IPO in March 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $1,063.
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