This week we look at the tech sector, which had an enormous year last year and which looks set for a great one in 2021 too.
Unlike many other areas, tech companies have been less hampered by the pandemic and seem poised to shoot the lights out again. Big Tech may be getting too big, however, and we are already seeing companies like Amazon and Google facing political push back on a number of fronts.
But while many news outlets will be focused on what is going on with the tech giants, there are also some other very interesting investment stories out there.
Argo Blockchain (LSE:ARB)
London-listed Argo Blockchain is a cryptocurrency miner which is regarded by many UK investors as a great play on the booming digital currencies phenomenon. It continues to update its cryptocurrency mining operations and just reported higher revenues for January (up +£1.63m on December to £2.48m). Its average monthly mining revenue is up at 71% from 60% a month ago. Argo Blockchain has also just announced it is buying two more data centres in Quebec. Shares popped from 19p at the end of the year to hit a peak of £1.25. They are now trading at around 94p.
Supply@Me Capital (LSE:SYME)
One of the more innovative companies in the European ERP space, Supply@Me is an inventory management play which is seeking to securitise inventory – i.e. excess corporate inventory. It wants to use new legal structures and SPVs to make it easier for companies to trade inventory with each other. We think this is a brilliant idea. The company says it is expecting to deliver on its first captive funding and self funding initiatives this year, probably before the end of March. The group said in January it expects to be the leading fintech in this area.
ProStar Holdings (TSXV:MAPS)
ProStar is a Canadian and Frankfurt-listed tech stock which was listed last month. It provides data and a portable interface for construction companies, utilities and indeed any companies that require better data on what is lying under the ground. It also has applications in the energy market. ProStar already has a large and diverse customer base and strong strategic partnerships in the global engineering space. The company is continuing to sign deals at a rapid rate and we expect great things from it in 2021.
GSTechnologies (LSE:GST)
All this technological innovation also needs the infrastructure to underpin it and this is where GSTechnologies comes in: based in Singapore it is a specialist in communications infrastructure, especially in highly innovative areas like intelligent buildings, as well as electronic cabling. It has a decent slate of clients in Asia but also recently said it was setting up a subsidiary in the UK which could be focusing on blockchain. Shares in GST spiked on the news as investors piled in, up from 0.16p at the end of January to trade at 0.87p at time of writing (it hit a 52 week high of £1.00 26 January).
Atlassian (NASDAQ:TEAM)
Atlassian is a cloud specialist working with enterprise customers and represents a solid medium level play in the growth of cloud computing which has really mushroomed during the pandemic. According to Atlassian, “when teams get distributed, work gets distributed, and when work gets distributed, you need to be able to collaborate properly.” If you think that the move to remote work is the new normal, you are speaking Atlassian’s language. Investors are bullish, and the stock has had a run from 168 to hit a current resistance level of about 250 in the last six weeks. One to watch in 2021.
