Cast your mind back just a few months ago to mid-2019. Every man, woman and their dog/preferred pet were talking about the ASX WAAAX shares (well maybe not everyone, but a lot of ASX growth investors at least).
WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC), Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), Appen Ltd (ASX: APX), Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) were the hottest things in town.
All five delivered eye-watering growth over the course of last year, complete with double- or triple-digit share price appreciation (even that's an understatement – Afterpay shares went up 144% last year).
But as we meander through the start of 2020, things are looking a bit less glossy for our WAAAXers. Perhaps you could say their fortune is (forgive me)… waning?.
WAAAX off?
Just today, the WiseTech share price crashed 20% after the company delivered its results that weren't really up to investors' expectations (despite WiseTech reporting earnings growth of 29%).
Yesterday, Altium suffered a similar fate. Its share price cratered on less-than-magical half-year results as well (again, if you consider earnings growth of 22% to be sub-par).
Appen shares are an interesting case study though. At the current share price of $25.77 (at the time of writing), Appen is still a ways away from the all-time high of $32 we saw in late July last year. In saying that, shares are still up 16% from the start of the year.
Afterpay and Xero remain the WAAAX's shining lights.
Afterpay shares are still trading above the $40 threshold (just off its all-time high) and are up 32% since the start of 2020. With no indications that its Australia, US or British expansions are showing any signs of even a slight hiccup, it's business as usual for Afterpay (although we still don't have a profit in sight yet).
Ditto with Xero. Xero shares coincidentally have printed a new all-time high just this morning of (a very tantalising) $89.99 and are up over 11% since the start of the year. The company continues to accrue new subscribers in its accounting Software-as-a-Service product and shows no signs of slowing down. The company has also recently become profitable – although still has a laughably ridiculous price-to-earnings ratio of 4,788.
Foolish takeaway
It seems the WAAAX shares have split into two camps – those who's fortunes have come back to earth slightly, and those for whom blue-sky still awaits boundlessly above.
On current prices, I'm not especially attracted to any of them, although Altium and Xero remain on the top of my watchlist.
