Everyone knows about the companies that won from the pandemic, and vice versa. While at one end you had ruinous sell offs in travel, industrials and energy, the flip side was a boon for ecommerce, telecommunication and digital payments. These companies in the latter category — perhaps best personified by names like Zoom, Peloton, Ocado, Shopify and Wayfair — were crowned “the Covid winners” due to the fortunate positions they found themselves in through little skill of their own.
But the lingering question for these businesses, and their share prices, was whether their explosive top line growth during pandemic just represented future growth being pulled forward into one short year, or a new normal of market dominance. In other words, would a Peloton bike permanently replace the gym, or become an expensive coat rack in a second bedroom?
Well, Wall Street seems to be giving us a clue. Not just down to the sell-offs in the stocks mentioned above this year, but also in how analysts estimates are shifting.