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Four of the five financial stocks making the biggest gains this week reported better than expected earnings, with two of them credit card-related companies American Express (NYSE:AXP) and Visa (NYSE:V).
The financial stock that climbed the most during the week ended Jan. 28 is Blackstone (NYSE:BX), the private equity and alternative asset management giant, which gained 13.2%. Its Q4 distributable EPS of $1.71 topped the $1.40 consensus, capping off a year in which its assets under management grew at its fastest rate in more than a decade.
Argentinean bank Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) came in second, rising 13%.1%; earlier this month (Jan. 6), the country’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 40%.
American Express (AXP) rose 12% after its Q4 EPS and revenue both exceeded average analyst estimates as travel and entertainment spending continued to recover from the pandemic. In addition, BofA Securities upgraded the stock to Buy after the company raised its long-term guidance to 10%+ revenue growth and mid-teens EPS growth.
Visa (V) rose almost 11% this week, most of it on Friday, after reporting better-than-expected fiscal Q1 earnings and a strong outlook for cross-border travel.
Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) jumped 10%, after Q4 results beat analysts’ estimates, with bank loans growing 23% from Q3 and return on tangible common equity improving to 26.6% from 33.3% in the year-ago quarter.
For the financial stocks that fell, two are fintech firms and two other firms reported earnings that disappointed on some aspect. Fintech app company SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI) logged the week’s biggest drop — down 20% for the week. A number of other fintech stocks also dropped as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reported to enter the SMB payments space. Note that SA’s Quant rating for SoFi is Sell, with poor grades on valuation, profitability, and momentum.
Live Oak Bank (NASDAQ:LOB) sank 15% for the week; on Tuesday its Q4 EPS of $0.66 trailed the $0.70 consensus and declined from $0.76 in Q3.
Hong Kong-based Futu Holdings (NASDAQ:FUTU) dropped 14% for week with no apparent catalyst.
Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) dipped 14% in the week that its Q4 revenue of $561M missed the consensus by $1.46M; it also acquired Digital Settlements Technologies, a digital payments platform for the class action legal industry that operates under the name Digital Disbursements.
Triumph Bancorp (NASDAQ:TBK), down 13% for the week, appears in the biggest financial decliners for the second week in a row. On Tuesday it extended its exchange offer for $70M in notes; at the time it said ~96.4% of the old notes had been tendered. In the past month TBK shares have lost 31% of their value.
On Friday, Goldman downgrades the Financials sector to Neutral after the stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 since it upgraded the sector to Overweight in November.
