The market may be trading notably lower this year because of the pandemic, but that hasn't held back all shares.
Three ASX tech shares that have been smashing the market in 2020 are listed below. Here's why they are on fire this year:
The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price has been a standout performer this year with a sizeable 61.7% gain. Investors have been buying the payments company's shares after its strong sales and customer growth continued during the pandemic. In addition to this, the arrival of WeChat owner Tencent Holdings as a substantial shareholder gave Afterpay's shares a major lift. Investors appear optimistic the ~US$500 billion Chinese conglomerate will help the company expand into Asia in the future.
The NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT) share price has been a strong performer with a 38% gain year to date. The catalyst for this has been a series of positive updates by the data centre operator. Those updates have revealed major contract wins and increasing demand for capacity within its world class centres. This appears to have been driven partly by the pandemic accelerating the shift to the cloud through the work from home initiative.
The Pushpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: PPH) share price has been a fantastic performer in 2020 with a whopping 85% gain. Investors have been scrambling to buy the donor management platform provider's shares after the release of its full year results for FY 2020. Pushpay revealed that demand for its services has been growing very strongly, even during the pandemic. This led to the company reporting a 1,506% increase in full year EBITDAF to US$25.1 million. Pleasingly, management expects its strong growth to continue in FY 2021. It has forecast EBITDAF growth of between 91.2% and 107% this year. But it certainly isn't resting on its laurels. It is targeting a 50% share of the medium to large church market over the long term. This represents a US$1 billion revenue opportunity, which is materially more than FY 2020's operating revenue of US$127.5 million.
