Datadog是一家什么样的公司？为什么受到投资者欢迎

紧随着2019年最大规模的几次首次公开募股（IPO），软件即服务（software-as-a-service）公司Datadog可能要从今年上市的烧钱公司萎靡不振的境况中脱颖而出。

这家监控和分析公司在本周四通过IPO以大约78亿美元的估值融资了超过6.48亿美元。公司本计划以DDOG的股票代码在24—26美元的区间发行股票，但却在周三最终决定以每股27美元的价格出售2,400万股。在纳斯达克交易的首日周四，股价的涨幅就已超过40%。

Datadog会通过分析数据、监控服务器、工具、数据库和各项服务为公司监控云应用，从而帮助各公司最大幅度地提高应用性能，改善用户体验。

不过即使Datadog的估值很高，分析师还是建议投资者将它纳入考虑范围。

制度研究机构和IPO ETF提供商复兴资本（Renaissance Capital）的高级IPO市场战略师马修·肯尼迪对《财富》（Fortune）表示：“从根本上说，像Datadog这样的公司正在开足马力，实现各项指标。事实已经证明，这类IPO在今年给投资者带来了丰厚的回报。它就是一家让投资者兴奋不已的高增长型软件公司，而几乎没有哪家公司具有它这样强劲的增长和盈利能力。”

实际上，尽管IPO投资者在2019年可能已经习惯（厌倦）了大肆烧钱的公司【想想来福车（Lyft）、优步（Uber），可能还有WeWork】，但Datadog的基本情况却令人耳目一新。这家软件公司在2018年收入1.98亿美元，同比增长97%，但它却把资金的消耗控制在了最低水平（只有3%的亏损）。对比2019年规模最大的那些IPO动辄数十亿美元的疯狂支出，投资者为什么青睐Datadog就显而易见了。实际上，研究和咨询公司IPO Boutique的数据显示，在Datadog上市之前，股票就已经超额认购——这意味着投资者对该股票的需求量已经超出了股票的实际发行量。

肯尼迪表示：“Datadog是罕见的既有增长又能盈利的公司，所以它与我们今年看到的大部分IPO不一样，甚至那些估值极高的IPO也没有这种表现。”Datadog估值高达约80亿美元，市盈率达30倍，对投资者而言具有很大风险——但复兴资本的肯尼迪认为他们愿意为此投入一大笔钱。

肯尼迪表示：“软件公司的市盈率目前看起来有所走高，我认为投资者看好Datadog能在数据分析领域保持长期的强劲态势。”

除此之外，这家云监控公司美元的留存收益率约在150%左右（肯尼迪认为“这个数据保持得太稳定了”），而D.A. Davidson的里什·加鲁里亚写道：“Datadog的强劲增长还在继续，（2019年上半年）收入（同比）增加79%，我们认为这让Datadog一跃成为增长速度排名第二的软件公司（仅次于Zoom Video Communications）”，他甚至还称这家公司“已经不仅仅是令人印象深刻了”。再加上Datadog极具侵略性地给出了27美元的开盘价，分析师对这家软件公司未来表现出色充满了信心。

但Datadog并非业内的唯一竞争者——实际上，包括Dynatrace和New Relic在内的几家对手可能会在争取投资者的资金上给Datadog带来挑战。

加鲁里亚写道，D.A. Davidson的一份报告显示，New Relic的规模几乎是Datadog的两倍，总收入和经营利润更高，在企业和平台上的指标也相似。

今年上市的软件即服务公司（或云公司）不止Datadog一家。尤其值得一提的是，Slack今年早些时候选择了很不寻常的直接上市，随后却在股市中表现惨淡，目前的交易价格比起开盘价已经下跌了30%以上。不过肯尼迪认为，即使发行价达到27美元（是公司定价区间的上限），Datadog的股价比起软件领域的其他公司也具有相当的竞争力。实际上，他认为“考虑到一些同行所处的位置，股价还有上涨空间。”

看起来，每个人都在追求Datadog。据彭博社（Bloomberg）报道，思科系统（Cisco Systems）甚至提出以70亿美元收购这家软件公司，但Datadog予以拒绝，并选择了首次公开募股。

有一件事可以明确——投资者似乎迫不及待想登上Datadog这艘船。肯尼斯表示：“我能轻易预测到它的价格会（从每股27美元）上涨，不过我们也注意到软件股票的市盈率已经超过了历史均值。”（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Chasing the heels of some of 2019's largest IPOs, Datadog, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, may just be a refreshing break from the quagmire of cash-burning companies debuting this year.

On Thursday, the monitoring and analytics company raised over $648 million at around a $7.8 billion valuation for their IPO. The company sold 24 million shares at $27 per share on Wednesday, after initially pricing them at $24 to $26 a pop under the ticker DDOG. The company began trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday, and shares are already up over 40% as of intraday trading.

Datadog monitors cloud applications for companies through analyzing data, monitoring servers, tools, databases, and various services to help companies maximize performance and improve user experience.

But even at the high valuation, analysts suggest investors consider throwing Datadog a bone.

"Fundamentally, everything looks like Datadog is firing on all cylinders and hitting all their metrics," Matthew Kennedy, senior IPO market strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of institutional research and IPO ETFs, told Fortune. "These types of IPOs have proven to be very profitable for investors this year. It’s just the latest high growth software company that investors are excited about, and this one just has growth and profitability that few do."

In fact, while 2019 IPO investors may have become (wearily) used to high cash burn companies (think Lyft, Uber, and potentially WeWork), Datadog is a breath of fresh air on the fundamentals side. The software company had 97% growth in 2018 (year over year) with $198 million in revenue, with a very minimal cash burn (about negative 3%). Compare that to the multi-billion dollar cash burn of several of 2019's largest IPOs, and it's clear why investors are chasing Datadog. In fact, according to research and advisory firm IPO Boutique, the offering was already oversubscribed before its debut—meaning there was more investor demand for shares than actual shares to sell.

"Datadog is such a rare combination of growth and profitability, so it is unlike most of the IPOs we’ve seen this year, even the ones that have gotten extremely high valuations," Kennedy says. With around an $8 billion enterprise value and 30x's trailing sales, Datadog is a big ask for investors—but Renaissance Capital's Kennedy believes they are willing to pay a pretty penny.

"Software multiples look elevated right now, and I think that investors are looking at Datadog as such a strong, long-term play for data analytics," Kennedy says.

To boot, the cloud monitoring company boasts around a 150% dollar-based retention rate (what Kennedy calls "so sticky it stays there"), and D.A. Davidson's Rishi Jaluria writes that "Datadog's strong growth rates have continued, with [the first half of 2019] revenue up 79% [year over year], which we believe makes Datadog the second-fastest growing software company after [Zoom Video Communications]"—and even calls the company's financials "beyond impressive." Coupled with an aggressive opening price of $27 a share, analysts are confident the software player will perform well.

But Datadog isn't alone in the field—in fact, there are several competitors, including Dynatrace and New Relic, that may give Datadog a run for investors' money.

New Relic is almost twice the size of Datadog, according to a D.A. Davidson report, and boasts higher gross and operating margins, and similar metrics on enterprise and platform, Jaluria writes.

Datadog isn't the only SaaS (or cloud) company to go public this year. Notably, Slack went the unusual direct listing route earlier this year, but has since had poor performance in the stock market, with shares currently down over 30% from their opening price. Still, even at $27 (on the top end of their pricing), Datadog is priced fairly competitively to others in the software space, Kennedy argues. In fact, he believes "given where some of the peers are, there’s a case for upside."

It looks like everyone is chasing Datadog—according to Bloomberg, Cisco Systems even offered the software company $7 billion to buy it out, which Datadog rejected in favor of an IPO.

One thing is clear—investors seem to be chomping at the bit to get in on Datadog. "I can easily see them trading up from [$27 per share], but we are conscious of the fact that software multiples look above the historical mean," Kennedy says.