How Tech Companies Are Valued So High?

by Andre Oentoro

How Tech Companies Are Valued So High?

Do you know that the US tech industry is expected to grow by 5.4% by the end of 2023? 

There are more than 580,000 tech companies in the United States. Out of which, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are some of the most highly valued companies in the world, with a combined valuation of $6 trillion. 

From Apple to Amazon and Google to Microsoft, these organizations have seen tremendous success over recent years, and their value has skyrocketed.

But why exactly are tech companies so highly valued?

Building Revolutionary Products

The answer lies in their ability to innovate and create revolutionary products that disrupt entire industries and improve people’s lives. 

Tech companies also benefit from strong customer loyalty and network effects, making them increasingly valuable over time. 

All these factors combine to create an environment where tech companies can grow rapidly and increase in value at unprecedented rates.

In 2022, the technology industry accounted for more than 10% of the total US GDP. And the importance of technology products continues to grow every year.

How Do You Value A High Growth Company?

Valuing a high-growth technology company can be tricky since many variables exist, such as future potential, the competitive landscape, and the industry in which it operates.

When valuing a high-growth company, looking at both short-term and long-term growth prospects is essential.

Evaluate Short-Term Growth

Short-term growth prospects include current earnings, sales, operating efficiencies, and customer satisfaction, which are heavily influenced by effective marketing strategies. There are various types of marketing, such as social media marketing, email and sms marketing, content marketing, and search engine marketing, that can drive short-term growth. Long-term growth prospects involve industry trends, projected market share, and future profitability, which are influenced by market research, product innovation, and effective branding strategies

Assess Products and Services

It is important to thoroughly assess all aspects of the business model of the company in question to do an accurate valuation. 

This includes analyzing the products or services offered, their pricing structure, and their competition level. 

Plus, understanding the business's financial health by looking at its assets and discounted cash flow should be considered when valuing a high-growth company.

Look for Extra Factors

Furthermore, it is important to look at external factors that could impact or influence a business’s success over time, such as industry regulations, macroeconomic conditions, and technological developments that could affect the competitiveness of its offerings in the market. BrushGalaxy for instance boasts a collection of over 50.000 premium procreates brushes which gives it a significant advantage over competitors. Look for similar moats.

Analyzing how these external factors could affect the company’s prospects will help investors decide whether they should invest in high-growth companies.

Here are the market caps of the biggest technology companies:

  • Apple: $2.3 trillion 
  • Meta: $458 billion 
  • Alphabet: $1.1 trillion 
  • Microsoft: $1.8 trillion 
  • NVIDIA Corp: $557 billion 
  • Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company: $460 billion 
  • Tencent Holdings: $443 billion 
  • Samsung Electronics: $275 billion 

Valuation Multiples For High-Growth Companies

The US tech industry accounts for 35% of the total world market. But how does valuation work?

Valuation multiples are a useful tool for investors when evaluating high-growth companies.

Determine P/E, P/S, and EBITDA

By using various ratios such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and enterprise value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA), investors can gain insight into the potential upside of an investment in a high-growth company.

How to Find the P/E Ratio?

The P/E ratio is calculated by dividing the current share price of a company by its current earnings per share (EPS). A higher P/E ratio indicates that investors expect higher future earnings from the company, while a lower P/E ratio suggests lower expectations. This metric often compares two or more companies within the same industry.

Why Do You Need a P/S Ratio?

The P/S ratio measures the value of a company in terms of its sales and is calculated by dividing the market capitalization of a company by its total annual sales revenue. 

A higher P/S ratio indicates that investors believe there is greater potential for revenue growth in the future, while a lower ratio could suggest slowing growth or underlying financial issues with the company.

Why Do You Need EBITDA?

Finally, EV/EBITDA measures how much it would cost an investor to purchase all outstanding company shares about its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

This metric helps investors estimate what kind of return they could receive from their investment if they could acquire all outstanding shares at current market prices. As with other valuation multiples, higher EV/EBITDA ratios generally indicate greater potential upside for investors.

How Do You Evaluate Company Growth?

Check Revenue and Profits

The most common way to measure a company's growth is through financial metrics such as revenue and profit margin. Revenue measures the total amount of money the company earns from sales or services in a given period, while profit margin indicates how much income is left over after expenses are accounted for.

By evaluating these figures over time, investors and managers can gain insight into how successful their operations have been and identify improvement opportunities. 

The following are the 2022 revenue figures of the leading tech companies in the world:

  • Amazon: $513.98 billion
  • Apple: $387.53 billion
  • Google: $282.83 billion
  • Samsung: $233.13 billion
  • Foxconn: $223.78 billion
  • Microsoft: $204.09 billion
  • Jingdong Mall: $155.18 billion
  • Alibaba: $127.83 billion
  • Facebook: $116.60 billion
  • Dell: $102.30 billion
  • Tencent: $83.64 billion 
  • Tesla: $81.46 billion

Look for Customer Satisfaction

Other important ways to measure growth include customer satisfaction surveys and employee reviews. Customer satisfaction surveys allow companies to gauge customers' satisfaction with their services or products and what areas need improvement.

Employee reviews help businesses understand their employees' level of engagement with the organization, job satisfaction, and any issues they may have. These insights can provide invaluable feedback on the company's overall performance when combined with financial metrics.

Check Market Share

Finally, market share analysis is another key metric when assessing a company's growth and performance over time. Market share indicates how much of the overall market a company is capturing relative to its competitors – both in terms of sales volume and pricing strategy – allowing businesses to track their progress against market industry trends

Tech Stocks Main Factors

Several factors, including the technology sector's overall health, related companies' performance, macroeconomic events such as geopolitical news and economic policy, and investor sentiment, heavily influence tech stocks.

Using Advanced Technologies

The performance of tech stocks is also often linked to advances in new technologies. Breakthroughs can lead to increased demand for products released by firms in the sector while lagging developments can cause investors to become more cautious or sell their positions.

Innovating Frequently

The tech industry is highly competitive and fast-paced; companies must continuously innovate to stay ahead and maintain profitability. Therefore, tech stocks are particularly sensitive to changes in research & development spending. In addition, the successful implementation of new products and services is essential for long-term growth.

Government Legislation

Finally, government legislation can have a big impact on tech stocks. Regulations related to data protection and security can force major changes in how companies operate and store customer information.

Embracing Net Neutrality

Laws related to net neutrality may affect how internet service providers allocate bandwidth, and tax incentives may reward certain kinds of innovation or benefit certain types of businesses over others.

Best Tech Companies to Invest in 

  1. Apple
  2. Amazon 
  3. Microsoft 
  4. Alphabet 
  5. NVIDIA 
  6. Tesla 
  7. Fortinet 
  8. ANSYS
  9. Salesforce 
  10. Seagate Technology 

Why Are Tech Companies Not Profitable?

Research and development are one of the main reasons why tech firms fail to remain profitable. New technologies require significant investment in both time and money for them to be viable solutions for customers.

Overspending on Research and Development

Companies often spend large amounts of money on R&D without guaranteeing that their product or service will succeed, making it difficult to recover these costs. Furthermore, many innovative products fail due to consumer demand needing to be more sufficient to cover the investment costs; this makes it hard for tech companies to break even.

Brutal Competition

Fierce competition is another factor that causes tech companies to struggle with profitability. Established players such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft have already developed their solutions, which are often more cost-effective than newly developed products by smaller competitors.

This makes it difficult for new entrants into the market as they must compete on quality, pricing, customer service, and other factors to gain traction.

Fewer Resources

Moreover, these larger firms have more resources, which they use to acquire smaller players who may possess unique solutions or competitive advantages; this further reduces the chances of success for smaller companies trying to break into the industry.

Not Prioritizing Profits

Many tech companies fail because they don’t prioritize profitability when developing products or services. Instead of creating solutions to generate profit for their business, they focus on building new features or improving existing ones without considering how these changes impact their bottom line.

As a result, these projects can cost more than expected without generating any revenue or profits, which leaves them unable to recuperate their investments.

Irregular Monetization

Lastly, many tech firms need help to monetize their products effectively, which prevents them from reaching profitability quickly. Many entrepreneurs mistake “building an audience” as an effective monetization strategy when in fact, it takes much more than just having users visit your site or use your product.

No Clear Plans or Goals

You must have a clear plan in place that outlines how you will turn those users into paying customers for your business model to be successful. Failing to do so can lead to prolonged losses instead of profits if not addressed quickly enough.

Why Are Tech Stocks So Overvalued?

Tech stocks are overvalued because investors are confident that their associated technology companies will remain profitable, despite the economic slowdown.

Embraces Revolutionary Technologies

This optimism is largely driven by the fact that many of these tech companies are leaders in revolutionary new technologies and services, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, online streaming services, 5G cellular networks, digital payment systems, and webpage APIs. These companies have embraced the concept of webpage APIs, which allow for seamless communication and data exchange between web applications and web servers. 

These technologies have become integral to how people live and do business today—and they'll only become more important in the future.

Higher ROI (Return-on-Investments)

Moreover, tech stocks have a strong track record of high returns relative to other investments. Many analysts point to the impressive growth seen from tech stocks during the previous decade, showing that these investments can be lucrative for those with the patience to wait out volatility.

Long-Term Payoffs

That's why even though tech stocks tend to be more expensive than other types of stocks—and thus potentially riskier—investors often view them as worthy gambles worth taking due to their potential long-term payoffs.\

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do tech companies have such high valuations?

Tech companies have high valuations because they can achieve strong growth quickly. They often offer innovative products, services, and business models that give them a competitive advantage in the market. 

How is a high-tech company valued?

A high-tech company's valuation is based on various factors such as its current performance, industry expertise, stock market potential, and competitive environment. These factors are then assessed together to determine an estimated value that can be used to establish the company's worth in terms of capital or revenue.

Is the tech industry overvalued?

While some people will say that the tech industry is overvalued, others believe that the current stock prices for most tech companies reflect their potential for long-term growth and innovation.

There are certainly concerns about whether or not these high values are sustainable, but overall many investors still see potential in the sector. Ultimately, it's up to each investor to decide based on their own research and risk tolerance.

Why are startup valuations so high?

Startup valuations are high because investors believe there is potential for significant returns. Tech startups often offer greater rewards than established companies because of their innovative ideas, disruptive technology, and potential for rapid growth. 

Concluding Thoughts

With high levels of innovation, a focus on customer experience, future cash flows, and access to vast resources, SaaS companies can create products and services that people love. 

Furthermore, they often benefit from network effects that allow them to scale quickly regarding users or subscribers.

In short, tech companies have all the right ingredients to be successful - it’s up to their teams now and investors who back them with capital if they will realize this value over time.

Andre Oentoro

CEO at Breadnbeyond

Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).