Business services providers thrive by solving complex operational challenges for their clients, allowing them to focus on their secret sauce. Still, investors are uneasy as firms face challenges from AI-driven disruptors and tightening corporate budgets.
These doubts have caused the industry to lag recently as services stocks have collectively shed 3.3% over the past six months. This drop was almost identical to the S&P 500’s decline.
The end of the earnings season is always a good time to take a step back and see who shined (and who not so much). Let’s take a look at how it distribution & solutions stocks fared in Q4, starting with Insight Enterprises (NASDAQ:NSIT).
Investors looking for hidden gems should keep an eye on small-cap stocks because they’re frequently overlooked by Wall Street.
Many opportunities exist in this part of the market, but it is also a high-risk, high-reward environment due to the lack of reliable analyst price targets.
However, the company’s gross margins came under pressure during Q4, which stood at 7.01%, compared to 7.52% in the year-ago period. It said this decline was a result of a shift towards lower-margin clients and regions.
Ingram Micro and its private equity owner, Platinum Equity, sold 18.6 million shares at $22 each as the technology distributor returned to public trading in a busy week for the IPO market.
