PayPal’s Strong Earnings Show That The Growth For Fintech Stocks Is Far From Over
While many of the hypergrowth names from 2020 continue to slide along with the recent tech rout, fintech stocks remain relatively resilient in the stock market today. Understandably, this is because of the vital role these companies have played over the past year. Amidst the current pandemic, the adoption of digital payments has and continues to accelerate at breakneck speeds. One doesn’t need to look far to see the impact of fintech on their life. From online payment for goods and services, sending money to trading stocks online, all can be done from your palm.
It was because of these reasons we could carry out our life with minimal disruptions. Merchants have been relying on fintech providers to keep their business going. For instance, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) is a fintech ecosystem that provides everything a business or individual would need in the cashless world. The fintech giant reported its strongest quarter on record and beat Wall Streets’ estimates on Wednesday. The digital payments company processed a total of $285 billion in payments in the first quarter, up 50% year-over-year. Besides, it also added 14.5 million net new active customers.
Furthermore, another growing trend in the overall fintech space now would be cryptocurrencies. Venmo, the mobile wallet owned by PayPal, also allows customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. With digital payments expected to be the norm in the future, it is not surprising investors have been looking for top fintech stocks to buy in the stock market. Be it the continuing innovation in fintech services or major adoption of cryptocurrencies, these trends are what many deem as the future of finance. If you are optimistic about what this sector has to offer, let’s look at four top fintech stocks to consider buying with plenty of growth opportunities ahead.
Best Fintech Stocks To Watch Right Now
- Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ)
- Paysafe Ltd (NYSE: PSFE)
- MercadoLibre Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI)
- Sea Limited (NYSE: SE)
Square
Square is a financial services, merchant services aggregator, and mobile payment company that is based in San Francisco. The fintech giant operates two fintech ecosystems, one of which provides a commerce ecosystem that enables its sellers to start, run, and grow their businesses. But what’s sending Square stock over the roof is its Cash App, a growing segment for the company. This is unsurprising given how at the onset of the pandemic, there has been a steady increase in cashless adoption rates and contactless payments.
If anything, the pandemic had accelerated this shift to digital payments. From its last quarterly report in February, Square reported a quarterly gross profit of $804 million, up by 52% year-over-year. The company’s Cash App delivered strong growth, with a gross profit of $377 million, a staggering 162% year-over-year increase.
We saw that PayPal has reported its strongest quarter in history. It is natural that investors will be looking at SQ stock today as it will report its earnings after the closing bell today. Considering the accelerating adoption of fintech, will you consider buying SQ stock right now?
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Paysafe
Paysafe is a leading specialized payments platform. Its core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly. Particularly, the company specializes in payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions. But Paysafe isn’t the same company as PayPal or Square. Rather, it’s primarily a payment processor. With over 20 years of online payment experience, the company boasts an annualized transactional volume of $92 billion in 2020.
You might have come across Paysafe as a pioneer in digital commerce. That’s right, but there’s another angle that could contribute more value to the company’s business. And it is the company’s involvement in iGaming that has growth investors salivating. In fact, Paysafe is the exclusive online payment processor for DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG).
Should Paysafe be successful in growing its iGaming market, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a multi-bagger investment in the making. With the company’s impressive global reach, would you say that now is the right time to be one of the early investors before PSFE stock takes off?
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MercadoLibre
MercadoLibre is the undisputed leader of e-commerce in the Latin American market. But there is also a high growth opportunity in the fintech segment of the company. If you have heard of this company, chances are you know it has a payment system by the name of Mercado Pago. And this is the Latin American answer to PayPal and Square. More importantly, this payment system has brought impressive results to the company.
From the company’s first-quarter results released on May 5, net revenue came in 158.4% higher year-over-year to $1.4 billion on a constant currency basis. Total payment transactions through Mercado Pago reached $14.7 billion, a year-over-year increase of 81.8% and 129.2% on a constant currency basis. Total payment transactions rose 116.7% from a year ago, totaling 630.1 million transactions for the quarter.
With its leading position in both e-commerce and digital payments in its geographies, MercadoLibre certainly has a lot going for it. With the rising affluence in the countries that the company operates, is MELI stock a buy and hold for the decades to come?
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Sea Ltd
Similar to MercadoLibre, Sea Ltd. core services consist of e-commerce, digital financial service, and digital entertainment. Sea Ltd gives investors exposure to the fast-growing e-commerce market in Southeast Asia. In particular, our focus today will be on SeaMoney, the leading digital payment and financial service provider in the region. This paired with its massive Shopee e-commerce platform has positioned Sea Limited to benefit from current online shopping trends. The company is slated to report earnings on May 18 before the opening bells.
It’s worth mentioning that the company’s digital wallet business has partnered with Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), in which SeaMoney will be among the payment options for Google Play Store in Indonesia. The company has already partnered with Google in Thailand. With fast-growing economies and a big addressable market in Southeast Asia, the growth outlook seems robust.
Sure, the company’s e-commerce and digital financial services are yet to be profitable. And that’s okay considering the company is still at a growth stage. With all that in mind, would you bet on SE stock right now before the e-commerce and digital wallet segments start delivering positive earnings?
