There's a lot of instability across the banking sector right now; bank runs and government policies have investors scrambling to separate the healthy banks from the weak.
Digital bank and fintech company SoFi Technologies (SOFI -0.56%) has been caught in this volatility. The stock has already been beaten down in this bear market, but shares shed another 18% over the past month and now sit almost 80% off of highs. This banking crisis should eventually pass like others before it, making this an excellent opportunity to buy the right stocks in hindsight.
Does SoFi make that cut? Here is why it does, and investors should consider adding the stock at these prices.
SoFi is no Silicon Valley Bank
Fear is one of the most dangerous threats to the banking system; your bank lends out multiple times what you deposit, a system called fractional reserve banking. The system works unless too many people try to take all their money out at once, something you might have heard called a bank run. Many consumers are scared because some banks recently collapsed from bank runs, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) (part of SVB Financial Group) being the most notable.
But many people don't realize how unique a bank SVB was; it specialized in venture capital clients, resulting in most depositors keeping much more than the FDIC-insured threshold of $250,000 at the bank. For example, SVB ended Q4 with $173 billion in deposits across roughly 35,000 clients -- that comes out to $4.9 million for the average depositor.
However, SoFi isn't banking for the same clientele. The company ended the year with $7.3 billion in deposits across 5.2 million members -- an average of $1,403 per depositor. People and companies banking with SVB knew their uninsured deposits were vulnerable if the bank failed, which only fueled fear and the resulting bank run. It's an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Excellent balance sheet negates risks
Regulators put rules in place after the financial crisis in 2008-2009 to help prevent banks from taking on too much debt with too little capital. Banks must satisfy several capital requirements and disclose their performance.
The CET1 risk-based capital ratio illustrates a bank's capital (what's left after subtracting liabilities from assets) against its risk-weighted assets (such as loans). In other words, it shows how well-equipped a bank is to endure financial distress.
Data source: SoFi Technologies 10-K filing.
You can see that SoFi is maintaining ratios far above the minimums regulators require; one could say that they're going above and beyond regulators' definition of a healthy bank. That doesn't make SoFi immune to a run on its bank, but remember that SoFi's deposit base is built much differently than SVB's (it's far more diversified).
The CEO is buying this dip -- should you?
There's a big difference between talk and walk; a company can easily put out a statement saying everything's fine when times get tough, but it means more when leadership puts their skin in the game. For example, the Justice Department is investigating insider selling at SVB just two weeks before the bank collapsed. The motivation for those sales is unclear, but it doesn't look good, given what's transpired since then.
SoFi's leadership is taking the opposite approach; CEO Anthony Noto has shown confidence in SoFi's business by purchasing 225,000 shares in March. Importantly, these are not prescheduled trades; executives commonly buy and sell shares as part of predetermined filings, but these recent purchases were unscheduled. That's a CEO's way of saying, I believe the company's in good shape, and I'll put my money where my mouth is. That can go a long way with investors.
Does that mean you should scoop up SoFi stock like Anthony Noto has? The market is very turbulent right now, especially in the financial sector. Investors may need patience while the dust settles, but SoFi seems fundamentally sound, which should bode well for shareholders when the market improves.
