The continued spread of COVID-19 has many businesses and their employees reeling. If not facing outright closure, many businesses are having to deal with a sharp shove in the direction of digital-only operations -- a fast-growing trend that quickly went from high priority to absolute must. The world will be a changed place once the dust settles, and the mobility and cloud computing infrastructure that supports it just got cemented into place.
Companies that were already beneficiaries of the growing cloud computing movement could be in for some short-term pain along with everyone else as they deal with the lockdown to halt the spread of the pandemic. But for the long term, these stocks are timely buys right now. Three that I'm eyeing are salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), and Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK).
Salesforce started out as a creator of sales and service software -- which are still high-growth segments and more important than ever before. Salesforce partner and digital consultant Avionos reports that 92% of surveyed corporate purchasers say a knowledgeable and trusted salesperson will be key to helping them navigate an economic downturn.