COVID-19: Zoom Hits $50B in Stock Market

June 1, 2020June 1, 2020 Editor

Zoom Video Communications is slated to report its first-quarter results for fiscal 2021 after the market close on Tuesday, June 2.

Investor expectations are high. Investors have driven shares of the unified-communications platform provider up 54% since the release of its last quarterly report on March 4. In 2020, Zoom stock is up 164%; while the broader market is down about 5%, making it one of best-performing “coronavirus stocks.”

Indeed, investor optimism stems largely from the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic caused a surge in the number of people working from their homes. This is due to many countries issuing lockdowns to help slow the spread of the virus.

READ ALSO: The Billions Zoom, Skype, Netflix, Other Apps make from Global Lockdown

This dynamic, in turn, has driven demand by businesses and other entities for Zoom’s communications products to enable their employees to work from home.

Following the significant jump in the company’s valuation, the net worth of its founder and Chief Executive Officer, Eric Yuan, also rose significantly by more than $800 million on Friday. He now has a net worth of $9.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Stock experts project the app will continue on this upward trajectory for a while.

Check out the projections for next year

In reaction to Zoom’s overnight success, Gennie Gebhart, a researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said she hoped Zoom would change course and offer protected video more widely; as some users of the app had raised security concerns back in April.

Meanwhile, Zoom has recruited Alex Stamos, a former chief security officer at Facebook, and other top security experts to help deal with the security issues which led to some top companies banning its use. While discussing efforts to deal with the security challenges, Stamos told Reuters:

 “At the same time that Zoom is trying to improve security, they are also significantly upgrading their trust and safety. The CEO is looking at different arguments. The current plan is paid customers plus enterprise accounts where the company knows who they are.”