My Stock Portfolio Review, October 2024
Portfolio Performance Overview and Key Stock Highlights
Hello, Investor,
Each month, I provide a transparent update on my portfolio performance, covering the latest news on core stock positions and analyzing recent developments across each holding.
For more frequent updates, follow me on X/Twitter @Sergey_Opl and on SavvyTrader for portfolio changes.
Portfolio Review
Holdings:
Monthly Allocations:
* green (added), orange (trimmed)
Performance (TWR):
Historical performance (TWR):
2020: +110.2%(since 15.04.2020)
2021: +23.7%
2022: -59.6%
2023: +57.3%
Cumulative: +83.7%
A recap of my portfolio in 2024
January:
⬇️ Trim ZS CRWD NET
⬆️Add TSLA TTD MDB AXON
March:
⬇️ Trim NET MNDY
✅ New position GTLB ~3.1% (after -23% on ER)
May:
⬇️ Trim CRWD MNDY DDOG TTD
⬆️ Add AXON
✅ New position SHOP ~3.2%
June:
⬇️ Trim CRWD MNDY MDB
⬆️ Add NET SNOW TSLA AXON SHOP GTLB
July:
⬇️ Trim NET MDB
⬆️ Add CRWD
September:
⬇️ Trim SNOW MELI TSLA NET MNDY ZS CRWD
⬆️ Add SHOP GTLB
✅ New NOW ~3.7%
✅ New IOT ~2.4%
October:
⬇️ Trim AXON NET TSLA
⬆️ Add MELI GTLB
The primary driver for my portfolio adjustments is the addition of MELI. I see MercadoLibre as undervalued relative to its revenue growth, particularly as Latin America's economic conditions stabilize and inflation eases—even in Argentina, where it has started to decrease, albeit still high.
I also increased my position in GTLB, which appears attractively valued on a multiples basis. The company's recent entry into the AI Code Assistants space could drive incremental revenue growth, with Gartner’s recognition further supporting GitLab’s progress in this strategic direction.
Reduced my position in ANON by 1.7% due to a significant increase in stock price and a rise in valuation multiples to record levels for the company; however, my conviction in the company remains high.
I also trimmed TSLA by 0.5% following the 10/10 event. The event lacked specifics—Tesla did not announce a $25-$30K compact car. The Cybercab concept seems like an "all-in" bet that might not pay off. I believe it would be more strategic to launch a small car with a steering wheel and pedals, scale up production, and simultaneously work toward fully autonomous FSD. Additionally, I reduced TSLA in September ahead of the 10/10 event after a price rally on related news.
Trimmed NET by 0.3% after a notable price increase over the past two days on news of a management boost with Cloudflare appointing Chirantan "CJ" Desai as President of Product & Engineering.
Commentary on my holdings:
Cloudflare NET
Cloudflare has acquired Kivera, a cloud security and compliance platform, to enhance the Cloudflare One platform by integrating preventive controls directly into cloud deployments. This acquisition aims to stop cloud security issues before they arise, addressing risks associated with misconfigurations and account compromises, which are leading causes of cloud data breaches.
The integration of Kivera's technology with Cloudflare One enables customers to:
- Safeguard all cloud environments with misconfiguration alerts.
- Implement one-click preventive security.
- Protect sensitive data by setting boundaries around cloud resources.
- Reduce risks of shadow IT and enhance compliance.
This acquisition follows Cloudflare's May 2024 acquisition of BastionZero, further strengthening Cloudflare One's Zero Trust and SASE capabilities, providing comprehensive security management for hybrid IT infrastructures.
Cloudflare has appointed Chirantan "CJ" Desai as President of Product & Engineering to drive the company's growth toward its $5 billion annual recurring revenue target. With over 25 years of experience, Desai previously helped scale ServiceNow from $1.5 billion to over $10 billion in revenue.
This leadership addition follows other strategic appointments in 2024: Mark Anderson as President of Revenue, bringing experience from Alteryx and Palo Alto Networks, and Stephanie Cohen as Chief Strategy Officer, with over two decades at Goldman Sachs.
Cloudflare has opened a new headquarters and technical hub in Lisbon, Portugal to bolster its EMEA operations, which include offices in London, Paris, Munich, and Dubai. Cloudflare has expanded its Lisbon team from 14 employees in 2019 to over 350 today, with plans for continued growth.
Datadog DDOG
Datadog has been named a Leader in the inaugural Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM), recognizing its comprehensive DEM solution, which includes Synthetic Monitoring, Real User Monitoring (RUM), Product Analytics, Session Replay, and Error Tracking for browser and mobile applications.
Datadog's DEM tools provide deep insights into user experience, performance, and security, supporting organizations like Redzone QAD in delivering reliable digital experiences. This designation highlights Datadog’s commitment to helping customers navigate complex digital challenges, ensuring high-quality experiences across their tech stacks.
Crowdstrike CRWD
CrowdStrike has been named a Major Player in the 2024 IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) for Enterprise report. With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated, legacy SIEMs struggle to meet the needs of modern security operations centers (SOCs). CrowdStrike's Falcon Next-Gen SIEM uses an AI-native approach to speed up detection, integrate data, and streamline SOC operations.
CrowdStrike has announced strategic partnerships with CardinalOps, Nagomi, and Veriti to enhance intelligence-led threat defense across enterprises. These partnerships will allow security tools to leverage CrowdStrike’s advanced threat intelligence to deliver actionable insights and reduce risk.
CrowdStrike has expanded its CrowdStrike Marketplace, a hub for CrowdStrike-compatible security products, enabling customers to discover, try, and purchase solutions integrated with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform. The Marketplace, launched in Q3 2023, now features over 260 listings from 140 partners, including AWS, Cloudflare, and NVIDIA, alongside top resellers like CDW and World Wide Technology.
CrowdStrike has appointed Louis Tague as Vice President of Sales for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) to accelerate growth and strengthen customer and partner engagement in the region. With nearly 30 years of cybersecurity and IT leadership, Tague brings experience from Google Cloud Security, FireEye, Symantec, and IBM, where he drove sales growth and operational excellence.
CrowdStrike and Fortinet have formed a strategic partnership to combine CrowdStrike Falcon AI-native endpoint security with Fortinet’s FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFW). This collaboration aims to provide customers with comprehensive, multi-layered protection across networks, applications, and endpoints, ensuring faster threat detection and response through a unified, integrated platform.
The partnership offers:
Rich Telemetry: Enhanced visibility into network traffic and user activity for accurate threat detection.
Advanced AI-Powered Security: Streamlined operations with real-time protection against sophisticated cyber threats.
Industry Validation: Both companies have been recognized as leaders in their respective fields by Gartner, emphasizing their commitment to innovation in cybersecurity.
CrowdStrike and Omnissa have partnered to enhance real-time threat detection and automated remediation for both Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and physical desktop environments. By integrating Omnissa's platform—built on Horizon and Workspace ONE—with the CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity platform, this collaboration aims to improve security and digital work experiences for hybrid work environments.
Key benefits include:
Unified Threat Visibility: Centralized threat observation and risk assessment for physical and virtual desktops.
Automated Remediation: Rapid deployment of Falcon’s AI-native protection and immediate remediation for endpoints without the Falcon sensor.
Improved Cyber Resiliency: Enhanced ability for IT teams to manage endpoint security in response to evolving cyber threats.
This integration allows joint customers to address hybrid work complexities, device proliferation, and the need for robust cybersecurity with streamlined threat management.
CrowdStrike has received the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification for its recent products, including CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, CrowdStrike Charlotte AI, and CrowdStrike Falcon for IT. This certification reinforces CrowdStrike's commitment to top-tier data security and privacy standards, emphasizing its focus on risk management, data protection, and governance.
The ISO 27001 certification, a globally recognized information security standard, was awarded after a comprehensive audit, verifying CrowdStrike’s adherence to rigorous security protocols. This certification assures customers of CrowdStrike's stringent data management practices and dedication to maintaining the highest cybersecurity standards.
CrowdStrike achieved the highest scores for Core Endpoint Protection and Managed Security Services in the 2024 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) report for the second year in a row, solidifying its leadership in cybersecurity innovation and effectiveness. The CrowdStrike Falcon platform—known for its AI-native endpoint protection—uses advanced AI-powered engines like CrowdStrike Signal to deliver rapid threat detection and automated protection. Enhanced by Falcon Complete MDR services, the platform offers comprehensive defense against evolving cyber threats.
Additionally, CrowdStrike was named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for EPP for the fifth consecutive year, recognized for both Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, and received a 99% customer recommendation rating in the 2024 Gartner Peer Insights report.
Zscaler ZS
Zscaler, has appointed Adam Geller as Chief Product Officer to drive innovation and growth. Geller also held key roles at Palo Alto Networks and NTT Communications, bringing over 25 years of experience in cybersecurity.
Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange platform has reached a milestone of over half a trillion daily transactions, underscoring its scalability, resilience, and trusted role in securing users and applications.
Zscaler and Okta have introduced four new integrations to advance zero trust security for their mutual customers. These integrations provide end-to-end, context-aware security, aiming to reduce risk, improve user experience, and enable cross-domain response through shared telemetry.
Key integration features include:
Adaptive Access Policies: Dynamic, context-based policies adjust based on user risk, enhancing threat detection and response.
Dynamic Step-Up Authentication: Additional authentication layers are triggered based on risk level for secure access to sensitive resources.
Security Data Contextualization: Real-time vulnerability insights, combining Zscaler and Okta data for faster security response.
Zero Trust Partner Access: Secure, agentless access for external users to corporate resources with identity management streamlined through Okta.
Tesla TSLA
The company reported its third quarter of 2024 results.
Thoughts on Tesla ER TSLA:
🟢Pros:
+ Tesla cars delivered increased by 6% YoY.
+ Auto gross margin significantly increased to 17.1%.
+ Gross margin, operating margin, and net margin increased both QoQ and YoY.
+ Cybertruck is in the ramp-up phase (S/X and other models produced increased by +91% YoY).
+ Tesla generated $326 million in revenue from FSD in Q3.
+ Global vehicle inventory slightly increased to 19 days (6,906 more vehicles produced than delivered in Q3), but remains at a low level.
+ Energy generation and storage revenue increased by +62% YoY; gross margin improved by +6.1 percentage points YoY.
+ Services revenue increased by +29% YoY; gross margin improved by +2.9 percentage points YoY.
+ Free cash flow (FCF) margin is 10.9%, up by +7.3 percentage points YoY.
+ Tesla CyberCab is expected to be a major growth driver in 2026.
+ Tesla Bot Optimus could be a future growth driver for the company.
🟡Neutral:
+- Automotive revenue increased by 2% YoY.
Market Reaction to Earnings Release: The stock price increased by 21% following the earnings release.
Unexpectedly, Tesla's Auto gross margin significantly increased to 17.1%. Cybertruck production has ramped up substantially and is growing at a strong pace. Both Energy Generation and Storage revenue, as well as Services revenue, are outpacing the overall revenue growth, with improved margins in these segments as well. Overall, Tesla's quarterly report was robust, showcasing notable improvements across multiple areas.
ServiceNow NOW
The company reported its third quarter of 2024 results.
Thoughts on ServiceNow ER NOW:
🟢Pros:
+ Revenue growth stabilized at 22.2% YoY.
+ RPO growth accelerated to +35.4% YoY, faster than revenue; cRPO growth accelerated to +26% YoY, also faster than revenue.
+ The company is improving margins and profitability.
+ Subscription Gross margin is at a record level.
+ Renewal rate remains strong at 98%.
+ CAC payback period decreased to 17 months, which is better than the average for SaaS companies.
+ Beat revenue guidance by 1.9%.
+ FY revenue growth guidance increased by 0.7%.
🔴Cons:
- Weak addition of new $1M+ ACV customers, only +32, the lowest addition of new customers in the last 2 years.
🟡Neutral:
+- Diluted shares count rose by 1.8% YoY.
+- SBC/rev 15%.
Market Reaction to Earnings Release: The stock price increased by 5% following the earnings release.
ServiceNow is enhancing its margins and profitability, with management providing a strong forecast for the next quarter. If the company exceeds its forecast by the same 1.9% as it did in Q3, Q4 revenue growth would reach 24% YoY, signaling an acceleration. The growth in Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) is significantly outpacing revenue growth, making revenue acceleration even more likely. The only downside was the weaker-than-expected addition of new $1M+ Annual Contract Value (ACV) customers.
Mongodb MDB
MongoDB has launched MongoDB 8.0, its best-performing version yet, providing major improvements in performance, scalability, security, and cost efficiency. MongoDB 8.0 is now available on AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure via MongoDB Atlas, and for on-premises with MongoDB Enterprise Advanced.
Key features include:
Performance Enhancements: 32% better throughput, 56% faster bulk writes, and 20% faster concurrent writes during replication.
Queryable Encryption: Industry-first encryption allowing secure queries on encrypted data without needing cryptography expertise.
Faster Scaling: Improved horizontal scaling, reducing costs by 50% and increasing data distribution speed by up to 50 times.
Vector Quantization: Reduces memory needs by up to 96%, optimizing cost and performance for large-scale AI applications.
MongoDB 8.0 meets the demands of high-security, high-performance applications, making it ideal for enterprises looking to innovate at scale.
Samsara IOT
Samsara’s Connected Operations Cloud has enabled Otto Car, Europe’s largest provider of private hire vehicles, to track and reduce CO2 emissions by 50,000 tonnes within a year. Using Samsara’s fleet management tools, Otto Car monitors data from its 5,600-vehicle fleet, including 4,000 electric vehicles, to optimize battery life, route efficiency, and reduce environmental impact.
Gurinder Dhillon, Otto Car’s founder, emphasizes Samsara’s role in achieving sustainability goals, while Samsara’s SVP, Philip van der Wilt, highlights the value of real-time visibility in proving and enhancing Otto’s environmental impact and operational efficiency.
Samsara has globally launched its Drowsiness Detection feature, leveraging AI to proactively detect driver fatigue in real-time. This system alerts drivers and managers instantly, enabling quick action to prevent drowsy driving incidents. The feature, trained on over 38 billion minutes of video, identifies nuanced signs of fatigue beyond yawning, such as head nodding and prolonged eye closure. Early adopters, like a major U.S. oilfield company, report significant improvements, with up to 30 days without driver fatigue incidents. Samsara's data-driven insights aim to enhance road safety and reduce crash risks, demonstrating their commitment to safety and innovation in fleet management.
Thank you for reading!
Follow me on X/Twitter for frequent updates on key news: @Sergey_Opl
For portfolio changes, follow me on SavvyTrader, where you'll find: current portfolio holdings, portfolio performance, trade alerts, and trade history.
Past recaps:
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
Disclaimer: This portfolio summary is for informational purposes only and not investment advice. Opinions are my own; please conduct your own due diligence.