Shares of SOFI and WISH are popular among Redditors. But decent fundamentals suggest that both companies are more than meme stock candidates.
Meme stocks are generally characterized by (1) their popularity among retail investors and (2) business fundamentals that are often short of pristine. High short interest along with Reddit popularity, among other reasons, are usually the main forces driving meme mania.
Today, Wall Street Memes talks about SoFI and ContextLogic, two companies that are cherished by the meme crowd. Beyond mere popularity, however, both have been showcasing decent fundamentals within two growing segments.
$SOFI - SoFi: a profitable fintech
Fintech company SoFi has been standing out among its peers. This emerging industry has been serving as an alternative to large banks and financial institutions. Growth of 25% in the sector is expected by 2022,accordingto third-party data.
- Solid results and still growing
SoFi has been delivering the goods. The company has reported revenues of nearly $750 million in the last 12 months, representing 151% year-over-year growth. SoFi also stands out in fintech for being profitable, a hard feat to achieve in the space due to the low-fee model.
The company has posted positive EBITDA for three consecutive quarters, with the last period showing $70 million year-over-year growth. In B2B, subsidiary Galileo posted triple-digit growth in the last quarter of more than 100% year-over-year.
- What Wall Street has been saying
According to Yahoo Finance, two analysts support a buy recommendation on SOFI with a target price of $27.50. Oppenheimer with a target price of $25seesupside potential at 55%.
As mentioned by the analyst, customer acquisition, cross-sell and market share capture are opportunities provided by SoFi’s assets. Also, a unique consumer-facing platform is a differentiator in consumer lending.
Even more optimistic is Rosenblatt Securities. The firm assigns a target price at $30, predicting 86% upside. The reasons for bullishness,according to the analyst, are summarized as "well positioned to capture a significant amount of value”.
The most recent take on SOFI stock came from Jim Cramer.According to him, shares are only one dollar away from his own target price.
“I think SoFi should be done going down soon. I mean, stocks stop at zero. This thing has just been a nightmare, and [CEO] Anthony Noto is better than that. It’s at $15. I’m a buyer at the $14 level.”
$WISH - ContextLogic: promising e-commerce
ContextLogic, the company that operates Wish.com, is a low-cost e-commerce marketplace used by more than 1 million merchants. Much of Wish’s business comes from China, the merchants’ main distributor country.
- Recent financial performance
In the company's most recent earnings release, ContextLogic reported robust revenue growth of 76% year-over-year, beating analysts’ top line expectations of $743 million. However, high marketing and sales costs led to negative margins and a large net loss: EPS of -0.21 vs. -0.18 estimated by Wall Street.
As far as the retail space is concerned,a research report suggests that e-commerce is likely to flourish beyond the COVID-19 crisis. It is estimated that US online sales will grow by $865 billion in 2021, a 13% increase over a pandemic year that was already ideal for e-commerce.
- What Wall Street has been saying
According to TipRanks, 6 analysts have assigned a moderate buy recommendation on WISH in the past 3 months. The consensus price target is $16, suggesting an upside opportunity of around 70%. Despite overall optimism among analysts, the latest takes have been more cautious.
Evercore ISI recently downgraded its recommendation from buy to hold. According to the analyst, the resignation of Wish’s tenured CFO after the IPO can be bearish for the stock. However, the analyst still sees 42% of upside potential.
The latest take came from Bank Of America, and it was another downgrade to neutral. The analyst noted that, in the first couple of quarters since the IPO, the customer acquisition strategy led to lower customer growth relative to prior estimates. Also, he added that U.S. stimulus in the first half of the year did not have the expected benefit on the company’s sales.
As a side note, WISH currently has a fairly elevated short interest ratio of nearly 14%,according to Yahoo Finance – arguably making it more of a target of meme mania.