Key insights
- An analysis of Vertiv, Lam Research, and Archer Aviation based on hiring velocity, social sentiment, and internal employee outlook. VRT is benefiting from data center growth, LRCX from semiconductor demand, and ACHR from EV commercialization. All three show strong hiring and positive internal sentiment, suggesting potential upside despite current market valuations. The author highlights congressional buying of LRCX as a positive sentiment indicator.
Back again, I posted something similar to this last week and received a lot of love. So I wanted to start by saying thank you guys.
Now lets get into it:
Been digging into hiring velocity and social sentiment lately instead of just staring at P/E ratios, and I noticed something interesting. Three stocks keep popping up where LinkedIn job postings are spiking, Instagram follower growth is accelerating, and internal employee sentiment is way higher than the stock price suggests. All three are trading below where analysts think they should be in 12 months. Figured I'd share since they all clicked for me on the same day.
VRT (Vertiv) is the most obvious one if you're watching data center trends. They just guided 30%+ sales growth for 2026 with a $15B backlog. But what caught me was the hiring. LinkedIn job postings went from like 1,000 to 2,000 in six months. Companies don't ramp hiring like that if they're just maintaining. Revenue is up 28% YoY, orders up 252%. Stock has rallied from $54 to $277 but their guidance suggests there's still runway.
LRCX (Lam Research) is the chip equipment play nobody's talking about right now. Revenue $18.4B and growing 24% YoY, net margins sitting at 29%. Job postings up 62% over six months. Here's the thing though. Their internal business outlook score is 94/100. That's the highest I've seen. They're not worried about a slowdown, and employees know something. Plus a couple Congress members just started buying the stock in February, which I always find interesting as a sentiment indicator.
ACHR (Archer Aviation) is the wild card. Pre-revenue, so obviously more risk, but the setup is compelling. They're hiring 16% YoY, Instagram followers up 18%. They've got $2B in the bank with guidance toward commercialization. Analysts are calling for $11 in 12 months against a current price around $6. That's 75% upside if they execute. This one's obviously more of a lottery ticket but the internal momentum metrics suggest management is confident.
The common thread with all three is that the alternative signals (hiring, social growth, employee sentiment) are all positive while the stock prices haven't fully reflected it.
Are any of you looking at these, or am I reading too much into hiring data? What's your actual process for finding growth stocks early?
Source for the data: altindex.com/news/growth-stocks-with-momentum