Fintech Stocks Continue To Lag The Market. Time To Buy?

Fintech Stocks Continue To Lag The Market. Time To Buy?

Our theme of Fintech Stocks - which includes digital payments and lending players, card networks, and insurance technology players - remains down by about 1% year-to-date on an equally weighted basis, compared to the broader S&P 500 which has gained 19% over the same period. While the bulk of the theme's underperformance was driven by a single stock, insurance tech player Lemonade which is down 44% year-to-date due to mixed quarterly reports post its 2020 IPO, even other names such as Visa and Fiserv have also underperformed. However, we believe that the theme stands to benefit in the long run from multiple trends including the secular shift to digital and contactless payments from physical payments, the increasing adoption of e-commerce, and improving financial inclusion in the U. S. and overseas. Below are some of the recent developments for some of the stocks in our theme. PayPal is up by about 19% year-to-date. Earlier this week, the company gave its app a big overhaul adding savings accounts and new in-app shopping tools as it looks to move beyond its core payments domain to become a financial super app of sorts. Visa has returned just 4. 4% over this year, as the