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How to buy stock in Asana (ASAN)
What to consider before investing in this popular task-management software's stock.
Asana stock is now available to purchase on the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s how you can buy in.
How to buy stock in Asana when it goes public
To buy Asana stock, you’ll need to have a brokerage account.
- Compare share trading platforms. If you’re a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Asana. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: ASAN. Research its history to confirm it’s a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy immediately with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Asana reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market’s ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Asana, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Asana. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What we know about Asana’s IPO
Asana’s stock launched on September 30 on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ASAN.”
The stock launched at $21 per share and the deal was underwritten by Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse and Jeffries Group.
The stock is live on the NYSE and available for purchase. To invest, you’ll need a brokerage account.
What we know about Asana’s balance sheet
Asana has over 3.2 million free activated accounts to its name and over 1.2 million paid users in 190 countries.
How do all those accounts translate in terms of revenue? In fiscal 2019, the company reported a net loss of $50.9 million on $76.8 million in revenue. And in fiscal 2020, Asana experienced a net loss of $118.6 million on $142.6 million in revenue.
The bottom line: Asana isn’t exactly profitable — but this is fairly common in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector, where growth is prized over profit. Asana’s revenue is growing, yes. But so are its losses.
Asana investment risks
Asana isn’t the only software company to launch an IPO this week. It enters the market flanked by competitors Snowflake, JFrog, Sumo Logic and Unity. With so many software companies going public, it may be difficult for Asana to pull in investor funds. It’s not easy to command the spotlight when you’re one of five fresh faces on the market.
And that’s not the only Asana-related risk to consider. Besides the generally high competition associated with the software industry, Asana is an international company. With over 40% of its revenue coming from clients outside the US, there are compliance risks to consider — a concern for any tech company, but especially dangerous for companies like Asana that rely so heavily on international clients.
Asana compared
Asana is a collaborative task-management system accessible as a web or mobile application. Through Asana, work teams can create, organize and assign tasks to streamline project communications and increase workplace productivity.
The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in San Fransisco, California. While it isn’t an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and receives an F rating for failing to respond to four complaints, feedback on third-party review sites like G2 and Capterra is exceptionally positive.
Results of similar IPOs
Since Asana is one of the first project management software companies to go public, there are few direct competitors to compare. That said, here’s how a few other remote-work-oriented companies have fared after launching their stock:
Atlassian (TEAM) is an Australian software company responsible for several well-known project management applications, including Confluence and Jira. It launched on the NASDAQ in 2015 trading at $27.50. The stock saw moderate growth for a couple of years but began to climb in early 2017. It saw an all-time high of $192.00 in July 2020.
Slack (WORK) is the software company behind the direct messaging app of the same name. It went public on the NYSE in 2019 trading at $37.22. The stock went into decline in the months following its release, hitting an all-time low of $19.59 in March 2020. Slack has recovered somewhat, but continues to trade below its initial value.
Zoom (ZM) is a communications firm headquartered in San Jose, California. Launched in 2019 at $62.00, the stock saw minimal growth until early 2020 when it began to dramatically climb. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the worldwide shift to distributed work, Zoom has performed remarkably well, trading at nearly $300 in early September.
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To buy stock, you’ll need to open a brokerage account. Compare your options using the table below to find the best fit.
Disclaimer: The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
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