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FinTech Stocks Still Attractive, Market Overreacting to Visa’s Cross-Border Travel Outlook

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Image: Visa continues to rake in the free cash flow. Though its outlook is clouded somewhat by recovering cross-border travel transaction volumes, we still like its asset-light, free-cash-flow rich business model. By Brian Nelson, CFA It’s easy to lose sight of everyday life when we hear stories about the latest and greatest cryptocurrency or the next iteration of yet another ETF that centers on one theme or another, but when we take a step back, almost all of us are still using and continuing to use one of a few payment options. Maybe it’s your Visa (V) Card, your Mastercard (MA), Discover (DFS) Card, American Express (AXP) Card, Capital One Financial (COH) Card or perhaps PayPal (PYPL), Stripe, or Square … Read more

Best Idea Visa on the Rebound, Generating Gobs of Free Cash Flow

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Image Shown: Visa Inc is a stellar free cash flow generator and is included as an idea in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Image Source: Visa Inc – Third Quarter of Fiscal 2021 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan We’re huge fans of the payment processing and payment solutions space. This industry is supported by secular growth tailwinds due to the global shift away from cash-to-card and card-not-present (e.g. online purchases) purchase options, and the ongoing proliferation of e-commerce. Furthermore, companies in this space benefit immensely from the network effect, which creates an economic moat for their business.  These companies are incredibly lucrative with relatively high operating margins and impressive free-cash-flow generating abilities, aided by their relatively modest capital expenditure … Read more

Best Idea PayPal Is a Tremendous Enterprise with Ample Capital Appreciation Upside

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Image Source: PayPal Holdings Inc – 2021 Investor Day Presentation By Callum Turcan PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) is a stellar enterprise, and we view the fintech company’s capital appreciation upside quite favorably, which is why we include shares of PYPL as an idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio with a significant ‘weighting.’ Shares of PYPL have been on a steady upward climb of late, and investors continue to warm up to the name. Expansive Offerings Creates Sizable Synergies PayPal put up stellar performance during the first half of 2021. Its number of active accounts rose to 403 million at the end of June 2021 from 377 million at the end of December 2020, while its payment transactions per active … Read more

Best Ideas PayPal and Visa Have Ample Capital Appreciation Upside Potential

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Image Shown: PayPal Holdings Inc’s digital wallet offers the firm multiple sources of upside. Image Source: PayPal Holdings Inc – February 2021 Investor Day Presentation By Callum Turcan The payment processing and fintech industries are incredibly lucrative and supported by powerful secular growth tailwinds such as the proliferation of e-commerce and the global shift away from cash (towards card, tap to pay, QR code, online, and other payment methods). PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) and Visa Inc (V) are two of our favorites in the space, and we include both firms as ideas in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. PayPal’s Long Term Growth Prospects Are Immense PayPal offers an expansive slate of services for consumers and merchants including checkout and point-of-sale … Read more

Stock Markets Still Healthy, Big Cap Tech and Large Cap Growth Safe Havens

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Image Shown: The S&P 500 has been trading above our fair value estimate range (shaded blue area) for some time now. A modest sell-off should be expected. We continue to be bullish on equities for the long run and point to the areas of big cap tech and large cap growth as sources of fundamental and financial resiliency. By Brian Nelson, CFA The S&P 500 (SPY), chart shown above, is trading above our fair value estimate range. The recent sell-off should not be surprising, and it has been predominant in speculative free-cash-flow burning technology stocks, of which we tend to avoid. In January of this year, we “raised” 10%-20% cash in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter … Read more

PayPal Reports Strongest First Quarter Results in History!

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Image Shown: A snapshot of PayPal’s first-quarter performance. Image Source: PayPal. By Brian Nelson, CFA On May 5, PayPal Holdings (PYPL), which is included as a highly-weighted idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, reported fantastic first-quarter 2021 earnings. Revenue grew ~31% on a year-over-year basis in the quarter, helping to drive non-GAAP earnings per share to $1.22, up 84% from the $0.66 registered in the year-ago period. Total payment volume leapt ~50%, and the company added ~14.5 million net new active accounts in the period. PayPal raised its guidance for revenue, earnings, total payment volume and net new active accounts for 2021. Revenue is now expected to advance ~20% at present currency exchange rates, while non-GAAP earnings per share … Read more

Visa’s Business Is on the Rebound

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Image Shown: Visa Inc remains a tremendous free cash flow generator, aided by its asset-light business model. We continue to be big fans of Visa and include the company as a top-weighted idea in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. Image Source: Visa Inc – Second Quarter of Fiscal 2021 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan On April 27, Visa Inc (V) reported second quarter fiscal 2021 earnings (period ended March 31, 2021) that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Visa’s GAAP revenues and GAAP operating income were down 2% and 9% year-over-year, respectively, last fiscal quarter as its cross-border business remains subdued. On the flip side, Visa’s total payment volumes and processed transaction were up 8% and 11% year-over-year, … Read more

PayPal Expects to Double Its Annual Free Cash Flows By 2025

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Image Shown: PayPal Holdings Inc views its total addressable market across the payment processing and solutions sitting at approximately $110 trillion, an enormous opportunity that the firm is well-positioned to capitalize on. Image Source: PayPal Holdings Inc – 2021 Investor Day Presentation By Callum Turcan We continue to be huge fans of PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) and include shares of PYPL as a top-weighted idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. As of this writing, shares of PYPL have surged higher by ~140% over the past year as the company’s business model has proven to be incredibly resilient in the face of the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. PayPal’s ability to generate meaningful free cash flows in almost any environment is supported … Read more

Visa Is a Great Company

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Image Shown: Visa Inc’s operations are on the rebound, though meaningful headwinds remain. Image Source: Visa Inc – Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Earnings for Fiscal 2020 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan We have been big fans of Visa Inc (V) for a long time and continue to include shares of V in our Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio as a top-weighted holding. Visa reported its fourth quarter and full-year earnings for fiscal 2020 (period ended September 30, 2020) in late October, which as expected saw the firm’s financial performance face significant headwinds due to the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. However, Visa’s outlook has improved tremendously during the past month as it appears there is a good chance that a safe and viable … Read more

Normalizing our Fair Value Estimates for the Money Center Banks

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Image Source: Mike Cohen By Brian Nelson, CFA In March, during the depths of the COVID-19 meltdown, we trimmed our fair value estimates for many financials and money center banks. The reasoning was rather straightforward. Our base-case projections for the group were lowered as a result of our expectations of a global economic recession. We factored in higher credit losses due to our anticipation of slowing economic activity that would be triggered by consumers staying at home to avoid COVID-19. We also considered the impact of net interest margin (“NIM”) compression that would result from expectations of a sustained ominous inverted yield curve, and in light of heightened uncertainty regarding the fatality rate of the virus itself (at the time), … Read more