Here's My Top Stock to Buy in February

Over the past 10 years, we have witnessed seismic shifts in the workforce. Businesses that rely on one-off purchases, the manufacture of physical goods, and even brand loyalty have stumbled mightily. They have been replaced by software-as-a-service companies.

If this is a foreign concept, consider the massive change Microsoft has experienced. In 2005, you had to buy a CD that contained Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and download it. Anytime there was an upgrade, you had to buy a new CD for hundreds of dollars.

Today, you simply pay a small monthly fee and you can access all Office tools from the cloud. Updates are made in real time; you don't feel the sting as much because your monthly fees are comparatively small. And Microsoft gets to collect more over the lifetime of your relationship.

But the company I'm tapping today isn't Microsoft. In fact, I think its returns can far outpace Microsoft's -- and I'm putting my own skin in the game to benefit from the opportunity.

That company is Atlassian (NASDAQ:TEAM) -- an Australian business that's built a suite of tools that IT, business, and software teams use to communicate and manage workflows. These tools are invaluable to the companies that use them, and the company is building an enormous moat around its free-cash-flow-positive business.

The view from 30,000 feet

If you aren't familiar with Atlassian -- and few probably are -- here's the overview of the company's main products:

• Jira Core: This allows any team (HR, Ops, etc.) to plan and track projects from cubicles just down the hall...or on the other side of the world.
• Jira Service Desk: Allows customers to get in touch with agents to fix problems quickly.
• Confluence: A searchable and open workspace for documents to be shared.
• Bitbucket: A site to collaborate on and build code solutions.

It's worth noting that this isn't an exhaustive list of tools. The company has made a habit of making small acquisitions and rolling them into its suite of offerings. These often complement one another, and are easier to upsell once customers are in the Atlassian ecosystem (more on that below).

The company collects revenue in four primary forms: perpetual licenses that allow companies to download and host software on site (this is relatively rare), maintenance revenue for initial installation and ongoing support, subscription revenue, and "other" sales -- which include the Atlassian marketplace (again, more on that below). 

Here's what growth in those segments have looked like over the past three years.