UBS Upgrades FinVolution (FINV) Stock, Lifts PT
On May 23, UBS upped FinVolution Group (NYSE:FINV)'s stock to Buy from Neutral, increasing the price target from $11.80 to $12.10.
As per the firm's analyst, the company's Q1 2025 results were robust, thanks to the margin expansion and asset quality. The company was able to beat earnings estimates slightly, despite seasonally soft loan volume.
An individual using a laptop to access the fintech platform to manage their finances.
The growth momentum in operating profit was stronger, while the margin expansion was supported by a decline in funding cost, a slightly lengthened tenor, and improvement in asset quality, added UBS. Overall, the firm's upgrade stems from the better risk-reward profile.
FinVolution Group (NYSE:FINV), which operates in the online consumer finance industry, saw total transaction volume of RMB52.1 billion, while outstanding loan balance increased to RMB74.1 billion, exhibiting YoY increases of 7.9% and 13.5%, respectively.
The performance exhibited continued robust execution of the company's Local Excellence, Global Outlook strategy. Moving forward, FinVolution Group (NYSE:FINV) opines that its diversified and resilient business remains well-placed to navigate the current global macro uncertainties.
Its total liquidity position, comprising cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments, was healthy at RMB8.5 billion. This exhibits a strong balance sheet, which aids ongoing operations and its efforts to consistently improve shareholder returns.
While we acknowledge the potential of FINV to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FINV and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: and 11 Unstoppable Growth Stocks to Invest in Now
Disclosure: None.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
3 Magnificent Stocks to Buy in June
Shopify is benefiting from organic growth in e-commerce, and it's aiding that by expanding its addressable market in multiple ways. Cava stock's recent dip offers a great opportunity to invest in this fast-growing restaurant business. After years of setbacks, the pieces are in place for a recovery at Nike. 10 stocks we like better than Shopify › Investors can set themselves up for life with a portfolio of well-chosen growth stocks. Investing in companies that are likely to be earning substantially higher revenue and profits in 10 years than they are today will help you multiply your savings. To give you some ideas, three contributors recently selected three stocks that they believe are positioned to deliver excellent returns in the coming years. Here's why they like Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP), Cava Group (NYSE: CAVA), and Nike (NYSE: NKE). (Shopify): Shopify is the largest e-commerce services provider in the U.S., with about 30% of the market, according to Statista. That gives it a strong moat against the competition, and it's constantly releasing new features and tools to satisfy demand and keep its top position. The company has developed a complete ecosystem offering everything an omnichannel retailer needs to operate. It has moved way past its origins as an e-commerce website developer to offer full commerce services, from back-end management systems to point-of-sale devices for physical retailers. Merchant clients can sign up for whole packages or individual components. That gives it access to large leading companies that might need specific services, and it counts businesses like Kraft Heinz and Mattel as clients. It also has partnerships with major tech players like Amazon and Meta Platforms. Not only has business been good, but revenue also grew in the 2025 first quarter by 27% year over year. It's now been eight quarters of revenue growth above 25%, and profits are also on the rise. Operating income nearly doubled in the first quarter, and free-cash-flow margin expanded from 12% to 15%. Management sees a long runway. E-commerce is still increasing as a percentage of retail sales, providing organic growth opportunities for years. According to eMarketer, e-commerce made up 20.3% of sales last year, and it's expected to increase to 23% by 2027. That represents trillions of dollars, and a large chunk of that will end up in Shopify's system as its millions of merchants benefit. It has many other growth drivers. Its merchants get stronger with time, and that's true across different time periods. Barriers to entry for entrepreneurs continue to come down, and more small businesses create new opportunities for Shopify as the leader in e-commerce. It's expanding its addressable market through increasing its product line, its geographies, and the size of its clients. And its market opportunity increased from $46 billion when it started in 2015 to almost $900 billion by 2023. Shopify stock is down this year as the market has concerns about tariffs, and now is a great time to pick up shares. John Ballard (Cava Group): If there's a restaurant stock that has the makings of the next Chipotle, it's Cava. With the stock down 28% year to date, investors have a great opportunity to start a position at a more reasonable valuation. The stock's recent dip can be attributed to its steep valuation entering the year, as Cava continues to report strong financial results. The chain is satisfying a healthy appetite for its Mediterranean-based menu. It just opened 15 net new restaurants last quarter, helping to drive revenue up 28% year over year. And it's important to point out that it is seeing strong growth at existing locations. Same-restaurant sales (comps) surged 10.8% year over year, with guest traffic up 7.5%. Cava is nowhere close to reaching its long-term goal of 1,000 restaurants by 2032. It's in only 26 states but already has a solid operating profit margin of 6.6% on a trailing-12-month basis, and that margin should continue to increase as the business scales up and leverages expenses across a larger store base. The strong growth in comps shows that Cava still has a lot of opportunity to increase sales at existing locations and expand brand awareness. The company is delivering a unique restaurant experience that is getting recognition: It was recently ranked No. 13 out of the 50 most innovative companies as chosen by the business publication Fast Company. Analysts expect earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 36%. This should be a multibagger stock as Cava expands to all 50 states. Jeremy Bowman (Nike): It's hard to call Nike stock magnificent these days. The company has gone through one of its worst periods in its history, due primarily to increasing competition and strategic errors under its former CEO. Revenue is falling by double digits and is now down 65% from its peak in 2021, steadily declining since then. However, Nike is still the largest sportswear brand in the world. It's not going to fade away into irrelevance, and the company has a number of initiatives under new CEO Elliott Hill that should help return it to growth. These include focusing more on innovation and new products, returning to more tried-and-true marketing methods, and reestablishing relationships with wholesalers after overly focusing on the direct-to-consumer channel. Nike will report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings later this month, and any good news could propel the stock higher. Though the company is facing a challenging macroeconomic climate with changing tariff rates, it appears to be regaining market share in running-shoe sales from Deckers' HOKA brand, which reported slowing growth in its recent earnings report. Nike also said in its last quarter that it had returned to growth in running footwear, driven by the Pegasus 41 and new shoes like the Pegasus Premium. Management also said that it expected revenue growth and gross margin to bottom in the fourth quarter and "begin to moderate there." If Nike can show it's taking steps to recovery and expects improving performance in fiscal 2026, the stock could move higher on the earnings report. While a turnaround won't happen overnight, the first step is earning investor confidence, and Nike can do that later this month when it reports fourth-quarter results. Before you buy stock in Shopify, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Shopify wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $674,395!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $858,011!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 997% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jennifer Saibil has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Jeremy Bowman has positions in Amazon, Cava Group, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Meta Platforms, Nike, and Shopify. John Ballard has positions in Cava Group. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Deckers Outdoor, Meta Platforms, Nike, and Shopify. The Motley Fool recommends Cava Group and Kraft Heinz and recommends the following options: short June 2025 $55 calls on Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Magnificent Stocks to Buy in June was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
1 Magnificent Pipeline Stock Down Nearly 20% to Buy and Hold Forever
At its current share price, Energy Transfer's distribution yields more than 7%, and the payouts have been growing. It has greatly improved its balance sheet and contract structure over the past few years. The master limited partnership has strong growth opportunities ahead of it. 10 stocks we like better than Energy Transfer › One of my favorite pipeline stocks to buy right now is Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET), and investors can pick up the master limited partnership (MLP) on sale, with shares trading down nearly 20% from their high as of this writing. In fact, the stock is one of my largest holdings. Here's why Energy Transfer is a great stock to buy and hold for the long term. Energy Transfer has built one of the largest integrated midstream systems in the U.S., handling the transport, storage, and processing of natural gas, crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and refined products. Its scale enables it to benefit from rising volumes across the energy value chain, as well as take advantage of price spreads across regions, seasons, and products. For instance, natural gas prices often rise in winter and can vary across the country. Energy Transfer can profit by storing gas ahead of periods of peak demand or by moving it from lower-priced to higher-priced markets. The company also upgrades certain hydrocarbons into more valuable end products. This kind of integrated footprint is hard to replicate, and it makes growth opportunities easier to take advantage of. With a strong position in Texas and the Permian Basin, Energy Transfer has access to low-cost associated gas, putting it in a solid spot to benefit from trends like the country's rising liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and growing electricity demand tied to the AI infrastructure build-out. Given the opportunities in front of it, Energy Transfer has transitioned into growth mode. It plans to spend around $5 billion in growth capital expenditures (capex) this year, up from $3 billion in 2024. One of its major projects is the Hugh Brinson pipeline, which will transport natural gas out of the Permian to help meet growing natural gas demand in Texas stemming from new AI data center construction. It also signed a deal with data center developer Cloudburst to directly provide natural gas to its AI-focused data center development in central Texas. The company has also received inquiries from more than 60 power plants regarding new connections in 14 states, and requests from more than 200 data centers. Energy Transfer also appears ready to make a final investment decision on its long-awaited Lake Charles, Louisiana, LNG facility. It signed a deal with MidOcean Energy to fund 30% of the project's construction costs in exchange for 30% of the facility's LNG production if the project goes through, while it has also signed several sale and purchase agreements with potential customers. Demand for LNG continues to grow rapidly, with much of the new demand coming from Asia. Shell recently projected that global LNG demand could climb by 60% by 2040, driven both by Asian growth and a broader push for lower-emission energy sources for segments like heavy industry and transportation. Energy Transfer is also in a strong financial position. Building pipelines and other midstream assets is a capital-intensive business, and in 2020, the company cut its distribution in half to reduce leverage and improve its balance sheet. However, its distribution is now above where it was before that cut, and its leverage ratio is toward the low end of its target range of 4 to 4.5 times its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). In fact, the company recently said it was in the best financial shape in its history. On top of its solid balance sheet, the MLP is also in a good position from a contract standpoint. This year, it expects about 90% of its EBITDA to come from fee-based services, meaning it's largely insulated from swings in commodity prices and spread differentials. Additionally, the company said it now has its highest-ever percentage of take-or-pay contracts, which means it gets paid whether or not customers actually use its services. Fee-based contracts with take-or-pay provisions increase the stability of its cash flows and support its distributions. Currently, the company is paying a quarterly distribution of $0.3275 per share, which at recent share prices is good for a forward yield of 7.3%. Management has said it's looking to grow its distribution by 3% to 5% annually. The distribution is well covered. Its distributable cash flow (operating cash flow minus maintenance capex) was more than twice its distribution last quarter. In addition to Energy Transfer being in a strong financial position with growing opportunities, the stock is also cheap on both a historical and relative basis, trading at a forward enterprise-value-to-EBITDA multiple of just 8. Between 2011 and 2016 (before the pandemic), midstream MLPs traded at an average multiple of 13.7, and the stock currently trades at a lower valuation than most of its peers. Now, Energy Transfer is not a risk-free investment. The company carries debt, and falling commodity costs and macroeconomic headwinds can take a toll on fossil fuel volumes. However, given its improved contract structure and balance sheet, along with its current growth opportunities, Energy Transfer's stock should provide investors with both an increasing income stream and solid price appreciation potential. That makes it a magnificent stock to buy and hold for the long run. Before you buy stock in Energy Transfer, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Energy Transfer wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $674,395!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $858,011!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 997% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Energy Transfer, Enterprise Products Partners, and Western Midstream Partners. The Motley Fool recommends Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 Magnificent Pipeline Stock Down Nearly 20% to Buy and Hold Forever was originally published by The Motley Fool
Entrepreneur
an hour ago
- Entrepreneur
Biopeak Raises USD 3.5 Million to Expand AI-Driven Health Clinics
"We're at a unique point where developments in molecular diagnostics, AI, and imaging allow us to understand the human body in unprecedented ways," says Rishi Pardal, Co-founder and CEO of Biopeak Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Biopeak, a wellness and longevity-focused startup headquartered in Bengaluru, has raised USD 3.5 million (approximately INR 29 crore) in seed funding from a group of notable investors. The round saw participation from Accel founding partner Prashanth Prakash, Claypond Capital--the family office of Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai and NKSquared, the investment arm of Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Founded in 2024 by Rishi Pardal and Shiva Subramanian, Biopeak delivers personalised health services through its own clinics, combining advanced diagnostics, molecular science, and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor early signs of physiological change. The company launched its first clinic in Bengaluru in March 2025. The funding will be used to expand Biopeak's clinic footprint across key Indian cities and strengthen its AI-based diagnostic and care delivery platform. "We're at a unique point where developments in molecular diagnostics, AI, and imaging allow us to understand the human body in unprecedented ways," said Rishi Pardal, Co-founder and CEO of Biopeak. "Our platform translates these insights into actionable, individualised health plans aimed at extending one's healthspan, not just lifespan." Biopeak's approach includes a suite of diagnostic tools such as microbiome mapping, organic acid profiling, salivary cortisol rhythm analysis, and whole-exome functional genomics. These are integrated with non-invasive imaging technologies including MRI, CT, DXA, and ECHO, along with tissue-level screenings to assess toxin levels, mineral balance, and oxidative stress. Clients typically undergo more than six hours of detailed consultations guided by a dedicated health manager and a multidisciplinary team of specialists. Health plans are updated regularly based on follow-up tests and consultations. Commenting on the investment, Prashanth Prakash said, "As India's population ages, our challenge is to build systems that not only extend life but also improve the quality of those extended years. Geroscience, early interventions, and scalable healthcare models will be central to this shift." Prakash, who also mentors Biopeak, is the Founding Patron of Longevity India, a platform focused on ageing research and interventions tailored for India's demographic needs.
