We recently compiled a list of Cantor Fitzgerald’s Top Internet Stocks: Best Stocks To Buy According To $13.2 Billion Firm. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) stands against Cantor Fitzgerald’s other top Internet stocks.
The rise of the internet and its ubiquity in our daily lives is perhaps the greatest technological innovation of the 21st century. The transformation of the internet into what can very well be described as a utility was unthinkable even during the peak of the dotcom era; however, the firms that started back then or those that leveraged it to mold their business model are among the largest and most valuable companies in the world right now.
The clearest example of this comes through the share price of the world’s largest eCommerce retailer. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, this stock ranks 1st on our list of Beyond the Tech Giants: 35 Non-Tech AI Opportunities. Its market capitalization currently sits at a cool $1.96 trillion, and while it doesn’t make it the most valuable company in the world, the firm’s unique ability in being able to merge the high volume and total addressable market (TAM) components of the eCommerce and logistics industry with the high growth, high margins offered by cloud computing has introduced a lot of stability into its shares. So much so that its peak to trough share price fall this year wiped off 19% of its value, while Wall Street’s favorite AI GPU designer marked a much sharper 27% drop. In absolute terms, this internet stock has delivered 2,077x in returns since its IPO, which is a cool way to turn a dollar into two grand.
Yet, it’s still not the only internet stock that’s transformed Wall Street and the world. Two other dominant internet stocks are the world’s largest social media company founded by Mark Zuckerberg and the world’s largest search engine provider set up by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Since they started trading, these two firms’ shares are up by 1,275% and 5,608%, respectively while their founders are among the richest individuals in the world.
This is the power of the internet. It has spurred new industries, created billionaires, and even has its currencies through cryptocurrencies. Safe to say, the internet is here to stay, whether it’s for posting memes or gaining access to healthcare from remote locations. But even though it’s been around for nearly three decades now, like the broader industry, the internet continues to evolve and open new frontiers.
While it’s lost some steam as the world dealt with the dual crises of the pandemic and high interest rate, the advent of fifth generation (5G) internet technologies is believed to expand the use of the internet across a diverse range of industrial and consumer applications. As per McKinsey, the Internet of Things (IoT) industry could create a value ecosystem that is maximally worth $12.5 trillion by 2030 end. Within this, factory usage of IoT accounts for more than a quarter of the value pie or $3.3 trillion. Application wise, the research firm believes that business to business or B2B applications hold the greatest potential for IoT value creation as they account for 65% of its value creation estimate.
Of course, the industrial sector is not the only one that’s being disrupted by the internet. Another key area where it is making its impact is banking. One of the oldest industries in the world, banks stand neck in neck with governments when it comes to bureaucratic processes, high overhead costs, slow decision making, and slow response times. This has proven to be quite a disadvantage for banks, as according to additional research conducted by McKinsey, internet companies like Google and Tencent are already offering banking related services where they can. Additionally, banks are also being challenged by financial technology firms, with the number of such companies growing from 25 in 2017 to 274 in September 2022 for a combined market value of $1 trillion. This shift to digital banking has also impacted traditional bank valuations, with bank stocks trading at a 70% discount in 2022. The research firm believes that banks that are successfully able to transition to a digitized model can unlock $20 trillion in benefits.
These benefits have already manifested. For instance, by adding language processing software to its business, one bank was able to remove 360,000 lawyer hours. As a whole, it is estimated that through digital banking, commercial banks can improve their margins by as much as 25 percent. For the banking industry, these are life or death improvements as during the 15 years that ended in 2022, bank margins had dropped by 25 percent and are on track for another 20 percent decrease over the next decade.
Finally, due to its ubiquity, internet stocks cannot be classified in one category. They range from social media firms to eCommerce companies, streaming services, and cloud providers. All these firms have their unique valuation drivers, which means that consumer exposure and heavy enterprise spending often prove to be the few broad based catalysts that apply to all firms. On this front, Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that managed $13.2 billion in assets as of December 2023 has started to focus on some top internet stocks.
Driving its strategy is the belief that “despite strong performance over the last 18 months, valuations in internet names are fairly reasonable and should benefit from the expectation for upcoming rate cuts, tempered by decelerating top-line growth and as benefits from widespread cost-cutting fade.” So let’s take a look at Cantor’s top internet stocks.
Our Methodology
To compile our list of Cantor Fitzgerald’s top internet stock picks, we ranked the firm’s 22 internet stocks by their share price upside for Cantor’s share price target for all the stocks except for stock number 17. This is because the share price target for this stock wasn’t available, and as a substitute, the average analyst share price target was used to calculate the upside/downside percentage.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
A young adult family using a Camera to record moments of their daily life.
Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q2 2024: 44
Share Price Target Upside: -14%
Cantor’s Rating: Neutral
Cantor’s Share Price Target: $8
Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) is one of the more popular social media services, especially among young users. Its key differentiation when compared to peers such as Instagram is the ability of users to maintain their privacy while sharing their daily lives with friends. Yet, Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)’s consumer centered model also means that the stock is vulnerable to cyclical downturns. Its primary source of revenue is advertiser spending, and this typically picks up when inflation is low and businesses are performing well. Consequently, Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)’s shares are down 42% year to date and flat over the past twelve months. The stock has been quite volatile as well, as it dropped by 34% in February after Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)’s fourth quarter 2023 results saw it miss revenue estimates of $1.38 billion by posting $1.36 billion and meeting analyst revenue guidance. However, the shares soared by 50% in April after its midpoint Q2 revenue guidance of $1.25 billion beat analyst estimates of $1.22 billion and optimism for sales of features such as direct advertising that are more stable than other advertising revenue.
Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)’s management shared details for direct advertising during the Q2 2024 earnings call:
“The growth of our community, the progress we have made with our direct response advertising business, and the success of our Snapchat Plus subscription business that now reaches more than 11 million subscribers, all contributed to revenue growth of 16% year-over-year, despite the impact of a weaker brand advertising environment for certain consumer discretionary verticals. We are pleased with the ongoing progress made in our DR business as well as well as the continued rapid growth in the total number of active advertisers which more than doubled year-over-year in Q2. We believe this progress validates our strategy of focusing on growing our community and engagement, investing in our Direct Response advertising products, and diversifying our revenue growth with our subscription offering.”
Overall SNAP ranks 20th on our list of Cantor Fitzgerald’s top Internet stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of SNAP as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SNAP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.