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Proprietary Data Insights Top Mega-/Large-Cap Credit Services Stock Searches This Month
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Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You The Juice has been sounding the alarm on credit card debt since early this year. If the latest report from the New York Fed is any indication – and we think it is – we’re headed toward a consumer debt crisis. Bad news for some consumers. But potentially amazing news for investors. Credit Card Debt Just in Time for Holiday Shopping In a minute, interesting data on holiday shopping along with a bonus and maybe unexpected stock pick. But first…
Source: NY Fed
While delinquency rates remain low, they’re increasing across the board. And they’re rising fastest among low-income earners and 18- to 39-year-olds. Even more alarming, the personal savings rate dropped again in September, to 3.1%. That’s down from 3.4% in August and the second-lowest reading in nearly 15 years. This means trouble’s brewing for the people inflation has impacted most as well as Generation Z and millennials. Either these groups have turned to credit cards to make ends meet or people under 40 have thrown caution to the wind, as people post-lockdowns do things again with the attitude that they can make more money later. It’s probably a mix of both and then some. This bodes well for investors. After digging into the data on credit card debt, we dug into our proprietary Trackstar database of the tickers investors search for most. No surprise, Visa (V) ranks #1 among credit services stocks. But searches for V surged dramatically – roughly 101% – over the last few days. As news of credit card balances continuing to climb made headlines, financial pros and retail investors investigated Visa as an investment opportunity. This helps confirm our interest in and subsequent bullishness on the stock. Our sister newsletter, The Spill, gives Visa an 8 out of 10 rating. At The Juice, we love Visa equally. In a nutshell, if consumers keep swiping (not on Tinder), it’s good for Visa. |
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Investing |
Holiday Shopping on Facebook and Instagram? |
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Key Takeaways:
As we hit you with data about how consumers feel about holiday shopping this year, a bonus, in-the-investor-doghouse stock for you to consider. Trackstar shows that search interest for Meta Platforms (META) – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – tanked 46.5% over the last week. And when investors lose interest, there’s often as much opportunity as when interest rises. Remember this old adage: Buy when others are fearful. There’s often opportunity in once-loved, now beaten-down stocks that appear to have life left in them. While everybody seems to hate Facebook and Instagram, not to mention Mark Zuckerberg, these days, check out this interesting data: Source: Smartly.io
This puts Meta properties ahead of TikTok, Pinterest (PINS), Snap (SNAP), and Twitter (TWTR). Why does it matter? Because it takes a mix of meaningful reach, loyalty, trust, and strong advertising to get somebody to buy something on social media. So as annoying as Facebook and Instagram ads might be, maybe they’re effective? While Meta stock has bounced back from its earnings crash, it’s still down roughly 16% over the last month and 67% year to date. Makes sense given the 4%, or $1.04 billion, crash in Meta advertising revenue between Q3 of this year and 2021. However, the sell-off in the stock might have been overdone, particularly if Facebook and Instagram gain better-than-expected traction with shoppers this holiday season. Something to think about as you shop for gifts. Some other interesting tidbits:
Say what you want about Facebook and Instagram, people trust the two platforms enough to endlessly scroll through them daily and, according to the data, buy things through them. And, in The Juice’s experience, if Meta does anything well, it’s getting relevant, personalized ads in front of you, over and over again. The Bottom Line: Put yourself in Meta’s shoes as a Meta sales VP or on-the-ground salesperson. Despite the downright scary Q3 and stock market carnage, you still have data to take to advertisers. And we assume the data Meta has on how users shop via its platform is richer than the third-party data the rest of the world sees. This has to be the hard sell: Ignore the noise. We can still convert your holiday ads into holiday purchases. If this works, Meta’s Q4 could surprise, which could send the company’s stock soaring in Q1 2023. |
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