Top Financial Stocks Worth Keeping An Eye On Today
The hype surrounding various other industries due to the tech boom today is easily justified. However, it is easy to forget about fundamentally sound industries in the stock market. A prime example of this would be financial stocks. After all, finance is an important part of our daily lives. We utilize the industry on a daily basis without realizing it at times. For example, we make purchases on credit or debit cards, pay bills electronically, or even apply for mortgages and loans. Not to mention, financial companies are also ramping up their efforts to incorporate technology to improve their services.
For instance, we saw Citigroup (NYSE: C) teaming up with Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) to re-imagine how data flows across its financial service transactions. Citigroup hopes to provide frictionless solutions for post-trade processes across the industry. Besides that, we also saw Paypal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL) acquiring Paidy, a leading two-sided payments platform and provider of buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions in Japan. BNPL has been a popular payment option lately and Paypal appears to be showing strong intent to be at the forefront to provide such services. With all said and done, do financial stocks look like an enticing industry to invest in now? If you share the same sentiment, here is a list of financial stocks to help you navigate through the stock market today.
Best Financial Stocks To Buy[Or Sell] Today
- American Express Company (NYSE: AXP)
- JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM)
- Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ: HOOD)
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS)
American Express
To kick start the list, we have the financial service company, American Express. Essentially, the company provides charge and credit card payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. Its simple yet efficient payment network operates through healthy relationships with third-party banks and other institutions. Investors appear to have been bullish on AXP stock this year, with the stock rising more than 40% year-to-date.
Recently, the company announced a partnership with Extend, a fintech company specializing in virtual cards. Their partnership aims to expand virtual Card solutions for businesses in the U.S. Nowadays, more businesses are looking to digitize their payment processes and increase the usage of touchless payments. Hence, the adoption of virtual Cards has also been rising as it would help solve timely needs for many businesses. This ranges from grinding a reliable way to control expenses to automating payment processes.
AXP stock also received a helping hand from Bank of America’s analyst Mihir Bhatia. He upgraded American Express’s stock to “neutral” from “underperform” in light of a more attractive valuation. So, he has now lifted his price target from $150 to $169. He justified this by pointing out the potential benefit from improvements in travel spending by large businesses that may occur next year. Given these considerations, do you share the same sentiment on AXP stock?
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JPMorgan Chase
As one of the leading financial services firms, JPMorgan requires no introduction. Well, despite being the juggernaut that it already is within the financial world, the company continues to strive for excellence. JPM stock has risen more than 65% within the past year.
For instance, JP Morgan announced earlier this week that it has acquired Frank. The company is the fastest-growing college financial planning platform that helps millions of students and their families navigate their finances. Frank now serves more than 5 million students at over 6,000 higher education institutions across the country. With Frank, the company now offers a unique opportunity for deeper engagement with students. Hence, it can now start building lifelong relationships with its customers from a young age.
In addition, the company also launched its new digital bank in the U.K. under the Chase brand earlier this week. Chase is the largest consumer bank in the U.S. and provides a broad range of financial services to more than 60 million American households. The Chase current account will launch with a rewards program offering 1% cashback on all eligible debit card spend for 12 months. This is designed to suit the U.K. consumer spending habits to ensure all customers can benefit equally. With all these exciting developments in place, would you add JPM stock to your portfolio?
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Robinhood Markets
Following that, we will be looking at Robinhood. Many would be familiar with its trading app which has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Through its app, users can invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, and cryptocurrency. HOOD stock surged by 10.85% in Wednesday’s trading session. So let us see what was the catalyst for this movement.
It appears that investors responded positively to the announcement made by the company that it will provide a crypto wallet for customers. This has been a service that its customers have been requesting for over the past year. The crypto wallet will let its customers send and receive crypto assets off its platform. Similar to how the company treats stock trading, it will not charge fees for buying and selling crypto.
So, wouldn’t you say that Robinhood will have a competitive advantage in the crypto space when it uses 0% transaction fees paired with a digital wallet? Of course, this new feature would come with risks for its customers and chances are, Robinhood will be changing how users interact with its platform. Nevertheless, many view this as a positive development in the right direction. With this in mind, would you consider jumping on the HOOD stock bandwagon?
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Goldman Sachs Group
Last but not least, we have Goldman Sachs. The company delivers a range of financial services to a diversified client base. These would include corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals. GS stock has been steadily rising over the past year, more than doubling its stock price within the period.
A week ago, the company announced that it is acquiring fintech lender GreenSky (NASDAQ: GSKY). The deal is reported to be valued at $2.24 billion as Goldman Sachs pushes further into consumer finance. By tapping into consumer finance, it is a huge opportunity outside of its historic domain of investment banking, trading, and wealth management for the rich.
Over the past few years, the company’s strategy has been the launch of its digital bank, Marcus. What Marcus offers to its customers are high-yield savings accounts, loans, and credit cards. Looking at the bigger picture, GreenSky would certainly help Marcus grow its loan product offerings and ultimately its overall user base. Goldman Sachs also believes GreenSky will offer an opportunity to capture a $430 billion home improvement market. So, would these new developments be enough to sway your thoughts on GS stock?
