March has entered the frame and comes in the wake of two contrasting months. The year started off with stocks in a hurry to put 2022’s miserable action to bed, pushing higher right out of the gates. Yet, February proved a wake-up call for those anticipating a full-on bull market, as many stocks pared back a big chunk of those gains.
So, what’s next? Morgan Stanley’s Chief Investment Officer Mike Wilson says 2023’s early rally was a ‘bull trap.’ Wilson predicts more pain ahead for investors, calling March a “high risk month for the bear market to resume.”
That said, Wilson’s analyst colleagues at the banking giant have identified an opportunity in certain stocks they believe could offer protection from the bear’s snarl. We ran two of their recent recommendations through the TipRanks database to see what other experts make of these choices.
Coursera, Inc. (COUR)
We’ll start with Coursera, one of the world’s largest online learning platforms. The company connects people with online college-level courses, for degree credit, for professional development, and even for fun. The company boasts over 118 million registered learners taking courses with more than 300 university and industry partners, including such names as Duke University, University of Michigan, and Google.
The peak of the COVID pandemic in 2020 put a huge premium on remote activities, for work, school, and leisure, and while the pandemic has receded, demand for those remote activities remains high. Coursera has leveraged that fact into steadily rising revenues.
In the last reported quarter, 4Q22, the company showed a top line of $142.18 million, for a year-over-year gain of 23%. For the full year 2022, Coursera’s revenue showed 26% y/y growth, to reach $523.8 million.
While the company’s top line is growing, and even beat the forecasts for Q4, investors have been wary. Coursera typically runs a net quarterly loss, and the recent Q4 release was no exception – although the loss did moderate. In Q4, the company reported a non-GAAP loss of $6.5 million, about 1/4 of the $24.1 million…
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