What Happened?
Shares of digital financial services company SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) jumped 7.4% in the afternoon session after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's dovish remarks signaled that interest rate cuts may be warranted. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell struck a notably dovish tone, signaling that interest rate cuts may be warranted if the economic slowdown deepens. This pivot is significant for high-growth companies like SoFi, which are sensitive to interest rate expectations. Lower rates reduce the discounting effect on future earnings and decrease borrowing costs, bolstering valuations for growth stocks. The favorable macro environment comes as SoFi has demonstrated strong underlying performance. The company's stock has already risen significantly this year, supported by factors including a robust second-quarter performance and impressive growth in its lending platform. Following its recent results, Mizuho raised its price target for SoFi to $26, and Needham increased its target to $25, maintaining a Buy rating.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
SoFi’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 40 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 3 days ago when the stock dropped 5.3% on the news that investors took some profits off the table as markets awaited signals on future monetary policy from the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium later in the week. The downturn in the market was largely attributed to a significant sell-off in megacap tech and chipmaker shares. Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Broadcom all saw notable drops, dragging down the VanEck Semiconductor ETF. Other major tech-related companies like Tesla, Meta Platforms, and Netflix were also under pressure. A key reason for this trend is that much of the recent market gains have been concentrated in the "AI trade," which includes these large technology and semiconductor companies. So this could also mean that some investors are locking in some gains ahead of more definitive feedback from the Fed.
SoFi is up 76.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $24.88 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of SoFi’s shares at the IPO in November 2020 would now be looking at an investment worth $2,374.
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