The S&P/TSX jumped 1.2% week over week as of close on March 9. Canadian stocks rebounded to close the week after the United States granted Canada an exemption from its stiff steel and aluminum tariffs that were signed in on March 8. Still, some investors are beginning to fret over the prospect of a global trade war.
Today, we are going to look at two top Canadian technology stocks that have gone in opposite directions to start 2018.
Kinaxis Inc. (TSX: KXS)
Kinaxis is an Ottawa-based company that provides cloud-based subscription software for its client base. It specializes in supply chain solutions. Kinaxis stock has climbed 10.7% in 2018 as of close on March 9.
Trevor Miles, vice president of Thought Leadership at Kinaxis, has opined about the importance of supply-chain processes for companies in the present day. In a recent interview, he gave the example of a ransomware attack or the impact of a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey on a business. Kinaxis is focused on supply-chain planning for its customer base, and this includes its own software, which is built on “concurrent planning.”
Miles said in an interview with Diginomica: “The reality is within supply chain, the processes are very segmented … Because there are different functions along the supply chain, from demand to inventory to capacity to procurement … All of those solutions that have developed have actually focused on those specific functions.” Kinaxis is also making leaps in enhancing its software with artificial intelligence markup language and is fine-tuning its idea of a “self-healing supply chain.”
In 2017, Kinaxis saw revenue grow 15% to $133.3 million and subscription revenue rise 23% to $100.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA surged up 40% to $40.1 million. Kinaxis will continue to benefit from evolving company processes and is a top-shelf growth stock on the TSX, even as it nears its all-time high.
Tucows Inc. (TSX: TC)(NASDAQ: TCX)
Tucows is a Toronto-based company that provides internet content solutions in the United States. It is the second-largest domain registrar in the world. Tucows was recently targeted in a particularly incendiary short-selling campaign from Copperfield Research.
Tucows appeared to be vindicated when it released its 2017 fourth-quarter and full-year results on February 14. In the fourth quarter, net revenue jumped 86% year over year to $90.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA soared 108% to $15.2 million. For the full year, net revenue rose 74% to $329.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA climbed 39% to $41.3 million. By the end of 2017, Tucows reported 22.3 million domains under management on its accreditations and 5.4 million domains under management on resellers’ accreditations.
Ting Mobile, which launched in February 2012, has continued to show impressive growth since its inception. Tucows stock is still down 14.5% in 2018 thus far but has increased 13.1% month over month as of close on March 9. Shares still offer solid value after its steep plummet in the beginning of the year.
