The rare winner and many losers on this year’s technology stock market – Information

Quick test: Which is one of the only technology stocks that have risen in price so far this year? (Set aside companies like Twitter that are being bought.) If you’re familiar with Box, pat yourself on the back. You paid attention. Yes, the shares of corporate software that were not in favor – to put it mildly – during the boom, prevailed during this brutal bear market. Box shares have risen 12.7% this year to their highest level since going public in early 2015. Worship, Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levy.

How do I explain this? Box is growing steadily, albeit imperceptibly, by about 13% to 14% per year. It generates a tonne of free cash flow, equivalent to about 25% of its revenue last year. More importantly, it is cheap. It’s not as cheap now as it was at the beginning of the year, keep in mind. But even today, after rising, it is trading only 4.8 times the expected revenue for this year. This is still below the average share of enterprise software at 7.7, according to Koyfin, although most other stocks lost ground this year.