Snowflake's stock can double from current levels if the cloud-data platform outshines top rival Oracle, a strategist says

• Snowflake's stock could double from current levels if it outperforms its enterprise-data rival Oracle, a chief investment strategist told CNBC on Thursday.
• King Lip of Baker Avenue Asset Management said that more customers were likely shifting to "off-premises" data warehousing, which Snowflake provides, from "on-premise" data warehousing, like Oracle's model.
• Off-premise data services have gained popularity because of their flexibility in using remote resources, saving organizations money on servers and other equipment.
• Snowflake's shares could "double from here" if it performs well enough to outdo Oracle, Lip said.
• Shares of Snowflake closed 111% higher, at $253.93, on Wednesday.
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Shares of the cloud company Snowflake could "double from here" if it performs well enough to outdo its rival Oracle, King Lip, the chief strategist at Baker Avenue Asset Management, told CNBC on Thursday.

Snowflake exploded as high as 165% in its public-market debut on Wednesday after raising $3.4 billion in the largest-ever software IPO, which even managed to draw in the legendary investor Warren Buffett.

Enthusiasm for Snowflake's listing indicates that risk appetite for companies that are offering shares to the public for the first time remains high despite an unpredictable market environment, Lip said.

He pointed out that Oracle provides "on-premise" data warehousing, in which a group of servers is privately owned and controlled within the physical confines of an enterprise.

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Conversely, Snowflake offers "off-premises" data warehousing, which consists of shared resources managed by a third-party vendor, with data secured by state-of-the-art encryption.

"In theory, more and more customers are actually moving their business from on-premises to off-premises," Lip said.

Snowflake, based in San Mateo, California, "checks a lot of boxes" that investors are interested in, Lip said, listing "superior growth, cloud storage, data analytics, customer retention," and client savings.

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The only drawback, Lip said, is its valuation. But he added that "if the growth continues, the valuation may actually look cheap at current levels,"

Snowflake, trading under the ticker SNOW, sold 28 million shares at $120 each in its debut, pricing the stock above its prior range amid strong investor demand.

Shares closed 111% higher, at $253.93, on Wednesday.

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