Latest news with #ChimeFinancial
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chime Financial (CHYM) Falls 8% as Stablecoins Threaten Traditional Payments
We recently published a list of 10 Stocks Take A Shocking Nosedive. Chime Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHYM) is one of the worst-performing stocks on Thursday. Chime Financial dropped its share prices by 8.13 percent on Wednesday to end at $31.65 apiece as investors soured on the Senate's passage of Stablecoins bill that emerged as a potential competitor to traditional financial technology companies. Stablecoins are a type of currency designed to maintain a 1:1 ratio with the US dollar and is widely used by cryptocurrency traders to move funds between tokens. Under the administration of President Donald Trump, Stablecoins gained momentum as an alternative payments method, emerging as a potential competitor to traditional payments companies, including Chime Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHYM). A customer making a online banking transaction on their mobile device at a local branch. After closing at $37.11 on its first day as a listed company, Chime Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHYM) has seen its share prices decline by 14.7 percent. While we acknowledge the potential of CHYM as an investment, 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 extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNA
a day ago
- Business
- CNA
Travel tech firm Navan confidentially files for US IPO
Corporate travel and expense company Navan said on Friday it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, as it looks to take advantage of growing investor optimism for new listings after a dry spell. The terms of the offering were not disclosed. The Palo Alto, California-based company, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed among others, raised $304 million in equity and structured debt financing in 2022 and was valued at $9.2 billion at the time, according to the company. Activity in the U.S. IPO market, which started the year on a slower footing, has shown signs of a sustained revival in recent weeks after a couple of fresh flotations received overwhelming investor support. The technology sector has been dominating the U.S. IPO headlines in the recent revival along with finance, with companies such as space and defence tech firm Voyager Technologies and adtech MNTN making stellar debuts. Chime Financial's shares also surged in one of the most hotly anticipated New York debuts of the month, paving the path for public offerings of a few big names like crypto exchange Gemini and fintech firm Klarna later in the year. "We do see the IPO pipeline building, and forecast an active fall (season)," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "In addition to the core institutional IPO buyers, who are looking for strong growth, profitability, and reasonable valuations, it's healthy to see traders looking to get in on a hot deal," Kennedy added. Navan, founded in 2015 as TripActions, began as a corporate travel management platform aiming to streamline services offered by traditional players such as American Express and SAP Concur. It later expanded into corporate payments and expense management.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
M&A Watch: A String of Hot IPOs Could Spark Second-Half Dealmaking
Another pair of IPO gangbusters played out last week. On the heels of the outright fervor that came with CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) and Circle (NYSE:CRCL) earlier in Q2, shares of Voyager Technologies (NYSE:VOYG) soared by 82% on their first day of trading. The space- and defense-technology company saw its stock rise by triple digits (percent) intraday last Wednesdayinvestors were clearly excited about the firm's niche. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 10 Warning Signs with CRWV. Voyager partners with firms like Airbus, Mitsubishi, and Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) in low-orbit endeavors, and with Aerospace & Defense being among this year's top-performing industry groups, it's easy to see why shares lit up screens early on.[1] While the total IPO count is still low, the window seems cracked open. Following Voyager's stock taking flight mid-week, Chime Financial (CHYM) made its much-anticipated debut, raising $864 million after pricing above its initial estimated range.[2] CHYM was music to the bulls' ears, surging 39% on Thursday. Brokerage platform eToro (NASDAQ:ETOR)[3] and virtual physical-therapy company Hinge Health (NYSE:HNGE)[4] are other notable go-public stories in 2025, raising $310 million and $864 million, respectively, both of which priced above their anticipated ranges. So, animal spirits are alive and well, right? Not so fast. According to Wall Street Horizon's data, dealmaking numbers remain depressed. Total M&A announcements are merely flat on a year-on-year basis, continuing a trend that began some three years ago, after the capital markets boom of late 2020 and throughout 2021. Still-Sluggish M&A Trends Heading into 2H 2025 Source: Wall Street Horizon The hope was that a more favorable administration in the White House and a business-friendly Congress would get the ball rolling with looser regulations, fueling corporate decision-makers to shake hands and ink agreements. That bullish backdrop has not panned out. Instead, tariffs make the macro environment uncertain, and CEOs and CFOs are apparently unwilling to strike deals. Still, with massive rallies in some recent IPO stocks, bankers' hopes may just be rekindled. It's not a total M&A malaise, though. 2025 has brought about a rash of smaller buyouts valued at under a few billion dollars. In the first quarter, PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) agreed to buy prebiotic soda brand Poppi for $1.6 billion. In the mortgage space, Rocket Cos. (NYSE:RKT) purchased Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN) for $1.75 billion. Then, just last month, retailer Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) scooped up Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) in a $2.4 billion cash and debt transaction. The shoe space is indeed kicking up activityrecall in early May that private equity firm 3G Capital agreed to buy Skechers (SKX) for $9.4 billion. In the tech space and during the throes of earnings season, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) struck an $8 billion deal to purchase Informatica (INFA), bolstering its AI capabilities. To close out Q2, other deals have caught investors' attention, with the most notable being Brown & Brown's (BRO) $9.8 billion acquisition of Accession Risk Management. In the Health Care sector, BioNTech (BNTX) expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of CureVac (CVAC), a $1.25 billion equity deal, marking the end of a decades-long rivalry. Overseas, luxury goods maker Kering recently acquired Lenti, an Italian eyewear manufacturer.[5] Are these the blockbuster megamergers everyone longed for a year ago? Certainly not, but it does prove that the environment can be conducive to risk-taking under the right circumstances. Moreover, with peak tariff fear hopefully in the rearview mirror, at least according to the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, the back half of 2025 might just feature an M&A rebirth.[6] Along with cooling trade-war concerns, a more upbeat outlook on the economy would likely spur deals. We've seen strategists reduce their recession forecasts, and online prediction markets suggest a less than one-in-three chance of a two-quarter US economic contraction this year.[7] More confidence at the macro level could help boost the appeal of buyouts and partnerships. And with central banks cutting interest rates at a fast clip (the US Federal Reserve notwithstanding), an easing of global monetary policy may make borrowing cheaper, enabling more leveraged deals and refinancing. Citi's head of banking expects more private-public get-togethers, which may offer a twist on the longed-for M&A upcycle.[8] The second quarter's final few trading days might actually present fresh breadcrumbs on the M&A pipelines heading into Q3. Ahead of Independence Day in the US, there's an active slate of shareholder meetings scheduled. Such events bring together stakeholders, and management teams present their strategic initiatives, which may include hints at key investments, such as M&A. Our data reveal that more than 1,800 Annual General Meetings will take place or have already occurred this month. Shareholder Meeting Volume Remains High Through June Source: Wall Street Horizon If you're looking for clues on overall C-suite vibes, you might want to monitor The Conference Board's Measure of CEO Confidence, which plunged in the second quarter to its lowest level since Q4 2022a time when recession fears were extremely high. It was the largest quarter-on-quarter decline in the survey's history, which dates back to 1976.[9] It's reasonable to expect a recovery in the next quarterly update in August, and if such a rebound comes to pass, then it may signal a greater collective risk appetite. Dealmaking isn't dead. There has been a steady diet of small to medium-sized mergers and acquisitions, but an outright M&A bonanza has simply not materialized. Global activity is also not all that bad, with significant corporate moves having been inked this quarter in Europe and Asia. But with an emerging IPO wave sweeping Wall Street, macro conditions may be shifting in favor of larger M&A transactions in the second half. 1 Voyager Technologies Rises in Debut, Signaling Improving IPO Market, The Wall Street Journal, Josh Beckerman, June 11, 2025, Digital bank Chime debuts advance wage product ahead of anticipated IPO, Reuters, Hannah Lang, May 15, 2024, Stock trading app eToro pops 29% in Nasdaq debut after pricing IPO above expected range, CNBC, Samantha Subin, May 14, 2025, Hinge Health prices IPO at $32, the top end of expected range, CNBC, Ashley Capoot, May 21, 2025, Kering Buys Italian Manufacturer Lenti in Eyewear Push, The Wall Street Journal, Andrea Figueras, June 10, 2025, Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for United States, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, June 17, 2025, Recession this year?, Kalshi, June 17, 2025, Citi expects banking fees, trading revenue to climb despite US tariff "anxiety", Reuters, Tatiana Bautzer, Arasu Kannagi Basil, June 10, 2025, CEO Confidence Declined Significantly in Q2 2025, The Conference Board, May 29, 2025, Copyright 2025 Wall Street Horizon, Inc. All rights reserved. Do not copy, distribute, sell or modify this document without Wall Street Horizon's prior written consent. This information is provided for information purposes only. Neither TMX Group Limited nor any of its affiliated companies guarantees the completeness of the information contained in this publication, and we are not responsible for any errors or omissions in or your use of, or reliance on, the information. This publication is not intended to provide legal, accounting, tax, investment, financial or other advice and should not be relied upon for such advice. The information provided is not an invitation to purchase securities, including any listed on Toronto Stock Exchange and/or TSX Venture Exchange. TMX Group and its affiliated companies do not endorse or recommend any securities referenced in this publication. This publication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor may there be any sale of any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. TMX, the TMX design, TMX Group, Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX, and TSX Venture Exchange are the trademarks of TSX Inc. and are used under license. Wall Street Horizon is the trademark of Wall Street Horizon, Inc. All other trademarks used in this publication are the property of their respective owners. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Is It Too Late to Buy the Chime IPO?
Chime spiked when it went public on Thursday, but it's trading substantially lower heading into this week of trading. The platform is popular, with 8.6 million active accounts accounting for just 3% of its current target audience. Engagement is rising, growth is accelerating, and it turns profitable in its latest quarter. These are all encouraging signs. 10 stocks we like better than Chime Financial › One of this year's most anticipated IPOs hit the market last week. Demand was strong for Chime's (NASDAQ: CHYM) offering. Underwriters were hoping to take the online banking specialist public between $24 and $26 a share, and they pushed it up to $27 on the eve of its exchange-traded debut. Chime stock opened at $43 when it eventually began trading three hours after Thursday's opening bell. But it went largely downhill from there. The shares closed at $37.11 on its first day of trading and then slid another 6% on Friday. Is it too late to buy Chime? No. The stock is still 29% above the underwriters' $27, but the shares enter this new trading week fetching less than what those who chased it during its first two days on the market had to shell out. There's a lot more to the Chime story than its limited post-IPO history. Let's see if it can ring a bell. Chime operates a growing fintech platform. As a branchless bank, or neobank, Chime offers online and mobile app access to basic banking services, including checking, high-yield savings, and debit cards. Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar institutions, Chime sweetens the pot with no account minimum fees and complimentary overdraft protection. Set up a direct deposit, and you can generate a healthy 3.75% yield on the idle cash in your savings account. The appeal is clear. The company's target audience is currently the 196 million Americans generating less than $100,000 annually, and it currently has less than 3% of that market penetrated among its 8.6 million active customers. This is a group that can sometimes live paycheck to paycheck, and Chime has lots of things that make it attractive to a widening user base, including a compelling fee schedule, flexibility, and the MyPay program that can advance up to $500 from an incoming direct deposit at no cost if it hits the account within 24 hours. Two-thirds of Chime users consider Chime their primary banking account. Chime hit the market at a good time. Revenue growth is accelerating. Its top line rose 27% in 2023 and stepped up to 31% growth last year. The top line came through with a 32% year-over-year increase in the first quarter of this year. The 8.6 million accounts the company currently services is a 23% jump over the past year and 82% over the past three years. Engagement is strong. Customers on average adopt 3.3 of Chime's product offerings. Average revenue per active account clocked in at $251 during the first three months of this year, and the average number of transactions was 54. Chime isn't yet a player for high rollers, but it still facilitated $121 billion in transactions over the past year. Thursday's trading high wasn't Chime's peak valuation. A couple of years ago, it closed on a private financing round that valued the upstart at $25 billion. Today's market cap is a little more than half that haul. Chime is getting better. Its annual losses narrowed last year, and it broke through with an operating profit for all of 2024. Actual profitability has been harder to come by, but it did get there in the first quarter of this year. The stock isn't cheap compared with many of the existing fintech leaders, even after the recent pullback from its initial pop on Thursday. Its revenue multiple north of 7 is well ahead of larger neobank SoFi (NASDAQ: SOFI) at 5.6. SoFi just turned profitable, and it's also been growing its business north of 20% for the past few years. Block (NYSE: XYZ) and PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) are less of a match to the Chime model. They're growing a lot more slowly, though they are profitable and trading at even lower multiples. Chime doesn't look cheap, but momentum is on its side. Growth is accelerating, and just the publicity surrounding its IPO this month should bring even more attention to the digital banking platform. Chime also believes that its product can eventually target even more affluent Americans, opening the door to even larger revenue per account and expanded product offerings. This can be a cutthroat market, but Chime is standing out at the right time. If it's able to keep growing its customer base and engagement, today's lofty valuation may seem like a bargain in the future. Before you buy stock in Chime Financial, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Chime Financial 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 $653,702!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $870,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 988% — 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 9, 2025 Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Block and PayPal. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal and short June 2025 $77.50 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is It Too Late to Buy the Chime IPO? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
14-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Chime IPO Will Kickstart A Fintech Investment Comeback
Chris Britt, co-founder and chief executive officer of Chime Financial Inc., during the company's ... More initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Thursday, June 12, 2025. Chime launched its IPO with a splash. Shares jumped as much as 59% above the $27 offering price—opening at $43 and closing near $37—marking a bold public debut for the US's largest neobank. With a valuation hovering between $11.6 billion and $15 billion—well below its 2021 private peak of $25 billion—the surge raises the question: Will this trigger renewed investment in neobanks and fintech? Chime's IPO follows strong debuts from fintechs like Circle and eToro. PitchBook's Rudy Yang framed Chime as 'a strategic breakthrough—marking a return of fintech liquidity' after the sector saw VC exit values plummet from $222 billion in 2021 to under $30 billion in the past few years. Chime could be a bellwether for a neobank--and broader fintech--recovery if it: There is another side of the coin: Is Chime's IPO really a pivotal moment for the fintech industry and a validation of the digital-banking model and a template for future bank challengers? No. Chime's debut feels more like a secure base camp than a flag planted atop Everest. It suggests that public markets are open to credible fintech challengers—provided they bring scale, strong unit economics, and realistic valuations. The critical questions for neobanks: 1) Can they diversify revenue beyond interchange (loans, wealth, insurance)? 2) Will macro conditions hold stable enough to sustain IPO markets? 3) Will consumer-trust and customer growth trajectories support future public offerings? The answers are no. There are market factors impacting neobanks that have closed the door to new neobanks coming into the market: 1) Megafintechs have better economics and business models. Among consumers who consider a digital bank or neobank their primary checking account or payments provider, half of them say their primary provider is PayPal or Square Cash App. Neobanks don't just compete with incumbent banks—they compete with the megafintechs, whose platform business models give them scale and revenue diversity. 2) Interchange isn't a reliable revenue source. Relying on interchange runs against consumer behavior trends regarding: 3) The niche affinity play is tough for startups. This strategy requires neobanks to identify a segment's unique financial needs and Be the dominant affinity. Neobanks' claims of how big their affinity groups are misleading because most of us belong to multiple affinity groups. Fintech has entered a new phase—one defined by realism, consumer impact, and long-term value creation. The new phase, however, isn't about bank disruption and displacement--it's about banking industry infrastructure upgrade and replacement. The Chime IPO will help create more VC interest in fintech investment--but that investment won't go to new neobanks. Instead, it will go to startups that bring two things to the financial services industry: 1) AI-driven process reinvention from machine learning, Generative AI, and Agentic AI tools and technologies, and 2) Stablecoin and other cryptocurrency-related payments innovation. The latter may do more to disrupt banks than Chime and other neobanks have done.
