Zoom Video has lost the momentum it had during the work-from-home boom, and a strong earnings report did little to change that, according to traders on CNBC’s ” Fast Money .” The company on Monday reported adjusted earnings of $1.22 per share and $1.12 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting 81 cents per share and $1.10 billion in revenue. Shares rose about 8% in extended trading. However, the company’s single-digit revenue growth and tepid outlook make the stock a hard sell, even with shares down more than 80% from their 2020 peak, said Tim Seymour, chief investment officer at Seymour Asset Management. “It is treated on some level like it is a high-multiple stock. It’s not a high-multiple stock. … The problem is, it is not a high-growth stock either,” Seymour said. “For a company that’s become a ‘verb,’ it’s a little disappointing. … the front- to back-end collaboration, communication platform is just not happening. And when I look at the growth and I look at them growing revenues about 3% to 4% over the next three years, it’s hard to get excited here,” Seymour added. The stock soared above $500 per share in 2020 as the use of video conferencing soared, but Zoom has since given back all of those gains. ZM 5Y mountain Zoom’s stock has fallen well below its pandemic-era levels. Michael Khouw, chief strategist at Optimize Advisors, said that the stock still doesn’t look like a great deal compared with its competitors. “You could actually buy Cisco at about 10-times earnings, and they have WebEx,” Khouw said. Guy Adami of Private Advisor Group called Zoom a “fine company” but cautioned that its use of stock-based compensation could hurt shareholders. That metric, which Zoom Video excludes from its adjusted earnings number, was a roughly $520 million expense during the fourth quarter, and can cause dilution for shareholders. The one trader on the panel who was relatively bullish on Zoom Video was Bonawyn Eison, who pointed out that the stock is trading at its pre-pandemic levels even though the company is now much larger. “This seems relatively fairly priced here. You still have the upside of a possible acquisition situation, and if they are able to combat this dilution, then I think there is still some upside,” Eison said.
