LiveRamp Stock Forecast

LiveRamp Stock Forecast: Modern business technology produces a ton of data. In order to use that information effectively, companies need to leverage solutions that control and connect that data while respecting user privacy. LiveRamp Holdings Inc (RAMP) provides that.

Technology is continually evolving, and the Internet is getting more use. This combination of factors produces vast amounts of data from a variety of different sources. At the same time, the data that is being amassed is very complex.

People use connect with brands in a bevy of different ways, and when marketers try to connect with each of those individual uses, they waste precious marketing dollars.

Customer information has to be consolidated to be understood. For instance, John Doe may have use johndoe[at]gmail.com to sign into Facebook, JD123[at]gmail.com for Google, and cookie XYZ. Without a data onboarder, companies have to interpret the patterns of those identities individually.

LiveRamp is one of the offerings that help companies make sense of all that information by consolidating those channels.

LiveRamp Links Data To Create Insights

LiveRamp is an infrastructure product that operates between data, the platforms that manage it, and the applications that use it.

LiveRamp similar to a Data Management Platform (DMP) in that it allows users to capture data and leverage that information for marketing campaigns.

However, the focus of LiveRamp is different from most DMPs. Whereas most Data Management Platforms position themselves as execution hubs, LiveRamp is different enough to be complementary to DMPs.

LiveRamp is a data onboarder. Essentially, this means that it links data to develop more insights. This platform combines first-hand data and third-party information to go beyond merely syncing cookies to connect information from anonymous consumers to known users. Then, it segments the data and builds offline segments.

Is LiveRamp Stock A Buy?

The conditions are right for a product like LiveRamp. On top of the increasing use of technology and disparate cookies/sign-in information, there are also issues of data privacy that companies need to manage.

LiveRamp helps them do that through subscriptions and it sells data insights on its marketplace. So far, it works.

The company has more than 600 partners and it has insights on roughly 700 million customers.

LiveRamp has also been experiencing some strong successes. Fiscal 2019 was a huge year for the company. It grew direct customers by over 20% and its revenue by 30%.

The company also increased its subscriber base by 38% and expanded the number of partners in its ecosystem by a few dozen. LiveRamp also repurchased more than $500 million in stock via a tender offer and repurchased almost $75 million in stock.

Following up those successes, LiveRamp has a goal to grow into a $1 billion company by fiscal 2024. To do this, LiveRamp is focusing its efforts on upsells and customer evangelization as well as initiatives around its DataStore (a monetized data marketplace), LiveRamp B2B, and LiveRamp TV.

It is also working on becoming the industry standard by making its offerings ubiquitous – but there is no guarantee of success.

Risks of Investing in LiveRamp

LiveRamp is heavily dependent on subscription renewals and growing its subscriber base.

There are two problems with this. The first is that there is a race to develop these offerings. At some point, the market will be mature and saturated. There is also the aspect that existing customers are under no obligation to renew their LiveRamp subscriptions.

To keep customers and attract new ones, LiveRamp has to strike the right balance between ecosystem availability (it needs to be where the customers are) and price value.

On top of this, LiveRamp’s customers are highly concentrated. the company gets almost a third of its revenue from its 10 largest clients. While no single company brought in over 10% of its income, losing one of them could be catastrophic

There is an issue of data availability as well. While LiveRamp has agreements with a variety of data suppliers, those entities could withdraw their information or prevent LiveRamp from accessing any additional data.

Losing an important connection could result in the company losing clients. Also, technology and privacy policies change all of the time. LiveRamp will need to keep up with these evolutions. If the company does not expand or adjust its offerings to reflect those differences, its business could suffer.

Negative public perception surrounding data collection and monetization or even a data breach that causes people to limit LiveRamp’s access to their information could limit the company’s future growth,

Finally, investors should keep on mind that one of the biggest ways that LiveRamp has grown its business is through acquisition. Joint ventures and other expansion strategies are one way to grow, but they can be as disruptive as they are beneficial.

LiveRamp will need to select targets that mesh well with its operations and provide enough value to offset any investment required.

Will LiveRamp Competitors Beat It?

LiveRamp is facing some serious competition. There are new entrants in this industry all of the time as well as large corporations who are expanding into data onboarding.

These competitors could develop new products, different approaches, and more advantageous pricing models. In either case, LiveRamp’s revenue and overall future success could be impacted.

LiveRamp Stock Forecast: The Bottom Line

LiveRamp has some promise, but it is also facing some serious risks to growth. Fierce competition, data availability, and a subscription-based model present certain challenges that cannot be ignored.

In addition, stocks like LiveRamp can move a lot. If you have the ability to stay tuned into LiveRamp’s stock fluctuations, you may be able to exploit those differences.

This can be good for day traders and options traders but there is a flip side. High volatility can mean more risk.

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The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.