The majority of fintech stocks have bounced back this year after a very difficult 2022 when businesses in the space struggled due to rapidly rising interest rates.
While investors are hopeful that the Fed is about to bring this 15-month stretch of unprecedented rate hikes to a close, the near-term future still looks uncertain with the possibility of a recession and tougher times ahead for the consumer. Still, I think there are some great fintech stocks out there right now worth buying for the long haul.
Here are three top fintech stocks to buy in June.
1. Fair Isaac
If you've ever had your credit score run before -- and most U.S. adults have -- then you've interacted, at least indirectly, with Fair Isaac (FICO -6.94%). It's the company that developed the FICO score, which is used widely to judge would-be borrowers' creditworthiness for various types of consumer loans. Fair Isaac's formula generates FICO scores ranging from 300 to 850 -- with 660 and above considered a prime borrower -- by pulling publicly available information ranging from property records to cable bill payments that help measure a person's ability to repay a loan and their likelihood of doing so. Fair Isaac makes money by selling these FICO scores to banks, credit unions, and other lenders.
But there's another side of Fair Isaac's business that people might be less aware of -- its software unit, which helps clients more efficiently run their businesses with tools like predictive modeling, transaction profiling, decision analysis, and artificial intelligence. These are tools that many businesses are now coming to realize they need, which puts Fair Isaac in a position of strength.
The stock has been a tremendous performer: It's up more than 320% over the last five years and more than 33% so far in 2023. Fair Isaac currently expects to grow revenue significantly in its fiscal 2023 (which ends Sept. 30), and forecasts that its net income will increase by close to 9%.
2. Nu Holdings
The Brazilian digital fintech bank Nu Holdings (NU 1.66%) has been on a tear since launching in 2014. By offering a credit card with no annual fee through a sleek digital platform, Nu has amassed an astounding 80 million customers and currently provides banking services to 46% of Brazil's adult population. It has also expanded into Colombia and Mexico.
While Nu has been an impressive growth story, the company has also started to generate some solid profitability, with net income of nearly $142 million in the first quarter. What's extremely impressive about Nu is the tremendous amount of operating leverage it has been able to generate, which very few fintech banks have been able to replicate. In its most recent quarter, the company's efficiency ratio (expenses expressed as a percentage of revenue, so lower is better) was an industry-leading 36.9%.
With a $31.7 billion market cap, Nu is undeniably trading at an expensive valuation. But it has only just begun to penetrate and monetize its Brazilian customer base. Furthermore, if Nu can replicate even a fraction of the success it had in Brazil in its other Latin American markets, then its future looks bright, which is why I can live with the expensive valuation.
3. LendingClub
I've been bullish on the digital marketplace bank LendingClub (LC 1.00%) for quite a while now, and while I got a little too carried away in 2021, I continue to believe the market is ignoring the company's model and eventual ability to quickly compound its tangible book value, which bank stocks trade relative to.
When LendingClub obtained a bank charter in 2021, that gave it the flexibility to hold some of the personal loans it originates on its balance sheet and generate high returns, though it still sells many of them to investors in its marketplace. The bank also allows LendingClub to fund personal loans with cheaper deposits.
While the fast-rising interest rate environment that began in early 2022 has frozen the capital markets and dried up investor demand for LendingClub's loans, the company has managed to maintain profitability while its peers put up losses.
LendingClub's main use case is credit card debt consolidation, and there is currently a record amount of outstanding consumer revolving debt. Moreover, credit card companies are charging record-high interest rates now, so when the capital markets open, LendingClub should be able to take advantage. While competitors like SoFi Technologies and Upstart trade at more than 2 and 4 times their tangible book values (TBV), respectively, LendingClub trades at just 87% of its TBV, despite much better profitability.
