Providers of work-from-home software, storage, security and services have been the most benefitted by coronavirus that has now infected more than 2.74 million in the United States, per John Hopkins university data.

As the infection rate continues to spike in several states, including Texas, Arizona, Florida and California, the state governments are opting to reinstate restrictions to maintain social distancing and flatten the curve. Markedly, the United States reported 52.3K cases on Jul 2, the highest since John Hopkins started tracking the numbers.

The spike in new cases has prompted search giant Google to push back its reopening of U.S. offices to Sep 7. Notably, tech giants like Google, Facebook FB and Twitter TWTR continue to offer employees the option of working from home through the remainder of the year.

Since the work-from-home trend is expected to continue for a significant stretch, video conferencing, productivity and collaboration software providers are expected to benefit the most.

Moreover, growing usage of cloud-based services is aggravating security lapses, inducing risks of hacking and phishing mails in the garb of coronavirus as content of the subject. Additionally, usage of own devices and equipment that are not properly configured or can be infected with malware during teleworking or accessing information to and fro from cloud raises possibilities of security breaches for enterprises. This is driving demand for cloud-based security service solutions.

Further, peripheral demand has increased manifold due to the work-from-home wave.

Here we discuss five stocks that are well-poised to gain from the solid prospects of continued remote-working.

Top Picks

Fortinet FTNT is gaining from rising cyber-attack risks that are propelling demand for its FortiMail platform, which can be used to block specific file types containing certain keywords, such as those related to coronavirus. The company is also capable of sending attachments to the FortiSandbox solution to check whether the file displays any malicious activity.

Moreover, robust demand for Fortinet Security Fabric, cloud and SD-WAN offerings bodes well for this $22.50-billion company.
 
Markedly, Fortinet sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a Growth Score of B.

Per the Zacks proprietary methodology, stocks with a combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy) offer solid investment opportunities.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Fortinet’s 2020 earnings stands at $2.81 per share, having moved 9.3% north over the past 60 days. Earnings are expected to increase 13.8% from the prior-year reported number.
 

Logitech LOGI is gaining from solid performance of Gaming and Video Collaboration units amid the coronavirus outbreak. Rising adoption of new mobile platforms in both mature and emerging markets is fueling demand for this Zacks Rank #1 company’s peripherals and accessories. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Logitech’s partnerships with cloud providers like Zoom Video, Microsoft and Google are major positives.

This $10.79-billion company has a Growth Score of B. The consensus mark for its fiscal 2021 earnings has been revised 3.7% upward to $2.26 per share in the past 60 days, suggesting growth of 5.1% from the year-ago reported figure.
 

Zoom Video Communications ZM is riding on the coronavirus-induced work-from-home trend. Moreover, this $73.10-billion company’s efforts to eliminate the security and privacy loopholes like “zoombombing” are expected to help maintain its existing enterprise user base as well as attract more customers.

Markedly, its latest Zoom 5.0 update supports AES 256 GCM encryption, which is available to all users, free or paid. Based on the Keybase acquisition, Zoom Video has started building end-to-end encryption, which will be available to all users.

Zoom Video currently flaunts a Zacks Rank of 1 and a Growth Score of A. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2021 earnings is pegged at $1.18 per share, having been raised 174.4% in the past 60 days. Earnings are expected to surge 237.1% from the prior-year reported number.
 

Box BOX is benefiting from growing customer base and strong cloud storage demand. This Zacks Rank #2 company provides a single place to secure, share, and manage all of the content for an organization’s internal and external collaborations and processes. Integration with other software like Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps for Work, Adobe and salesforce is likely to enhance Box’s user base.

Box currently carries a Growth Score of A. The consensus mark for this $3.20-billion company’s 2020 earnings has risen 35.1% to 50 cents per share over the past 60 days and suggests an improvement from 3 cents reported in the previous year.
 

Dropbox DBX is riding on growing demand for its team collaboration tools through which users can share files, photos, videos, songs and spreadsheets. This Zacks Rank #2 company’s strong focus on product innovation and introduction of features like Dropbox Passwords, Vault and Computer backup are anticipated to expand its user base.

Further, integration with leading applications like Zoom Video, Slack and Atlassian will likely expand the Dropbox paying user base.

Dropbox currently has a Growth Score of B and a market cap of $9 billion. The consensus mark for its 2020 earnings is pegged at 74 cents per share, having been revised upward by 5.7% in the past 60 days. Earnings are expected to jump 48% from the prior-year reported number.
 

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