2026년 2월 9일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance
Fintech stocks continue to draw investor interest because they sit at the intersection of two durable growth areas – finance and technology. Over the past few years, advances in AI and cloud infrastructure have accelerated innovation across the tech landscape, and financial platforms are increasingly adopting these tools to improve efficiency, personalization, and scale.
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At the same time, the global shift toward digital payments and app-based financial services is still underway. Cash usage is declining across many markets, while online banking, digital wallets, and embedded payment systems are becoming part of everyday commerce. The transition is gradual, but the direction is clear, and it supports a long runway for companies operating in financial technology.
And that brings us to J.P. Morgan’s latest fintech calls. The bank’s equity analysts have been digging into the financial technology sector, identifying where they see upside while also flagging names they prefer to avoid. Their recent work highlights two well-known companies with different profiles – SoFi (NASDAQ:SOFI) and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL). PayPal is an established digital payments platform with decades of operating history, while SoFi represents the newer wave of app-centric financial providers.
In this case, the firm draws a clear line between them, assigning a Buy rating to only one of the two, while taking a more cautious stance on the other. Let’s take a closer look.
SoFi Technologies
SoFi, the first JPM call on our radar here, gets its name from ‘social finance,’ the niche it occupies and helped create. The company was founded in 2011, and works to combine the interactive online world with the world of digital banking. It’s a new way to look at fintech, and it has proven successful.
The company is based in San Francisco, not far from Silicon Valley; it was born in the midst of the region’s start-up and high-tech cultures. SoFi is licensed as a regular bank, and its customers can access an array of banking services – including checking and savings accounts, personal loans, credit cards, mortgage loans, student loan refinancing, and various other financial products, such as insurance policies and investment accounts.
Against this background, it makes sense that SoFi hasn’t got a physical presence – in this day of social media, an online-only bank, without brick-and-mortar physical branches, shouldn’t be a surprise. SoFi’s customers access their services online, via smartphones and tablets or laptops and PCs, on the bank’s mobile app or website. Also unsurprisingly, SoFi orients itself toward the younger generation, customers who grew up in the digital world, and are comfortable navigating a digital-only bank as they start their own independent financial lives.
Story Continues
Some numbers will show the extent of the company’s success. SoFi currently boasts some 13.7 million members, and since its inception, the bank has funded more than $73 billion in loans. Just as importantly, its members have been able to pay off more than $34 billion in debt.
SoFi’s latest quarterly print showed the growth story is still very much intact. In 4Q25, the company delivered $1.025 billion in revenue, marking a 40% year-over-year jump and coming in more than $30 million ahead of expectations. Profitability also cleared the bar, with adjusted EPS of $0.13, topping consensus by two cents. User momentum remained just as strong, with total membership climbing to 13.7 million, up 35% from a year earlier.
Looking ahead, management’s near-term outlook stays steady. For Q1, SoFi is guiding to GAAP EPS of about $0.12, roughly in line with Street estimates, alongside adjusted revenue of around $1.04 billion, also tracking consensus.
Nevertheless, shares drifted lower after the earnings print, but J.P. Morgan analyst Reginald Smith sees the weakness as an attractive entry point into a sound company.
“Shares have declined 10% since its 4Q25 earnings call, despite posting record 4Q results and better than expected FY26 Adj. EBITDA guidance, creating the type of entry point we had been waiting for. Momentum in the business is undeniable, as SoFi continues to add new members and deposits at a record pace, while other fintechs report deposit outflows or stagnant member growth, and investments in marketing in ‘25 and 1H26 set the stage for continued premium customer acquisition and engagement for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, the company has scaled nicely and boasts material GAAP earnings (ignoring non-cash FV gains) from its nearly ~$40bn loan portfolio, with further upside from fee-income from its Tech Platform and rapidly expanding Financial Services offerings (e.g. SoFi Plus), deserving of a premium valuation,” Smith opined.
Smith goes on to rate SOFI shares as Overweight (i.e., Buy), with a $31 price target that points toward a one-year upside potential of ~49%. (To watch Smith’s track record, click here)
That’s the bullish view. SoFi’s consensus rating from the Street is a Hold (i.e., Neutral), based on 14 analyst reviews that include 4 Buys, 7 Holds, and 3 Sells. The stock is priced at $20.86 right now, and its $26.05 average price target implies a ~25% gain in the next 12 months. (See SOFI stock forecast)
PayPal
The next stock we’ll look at is PayPal, an early leader in the online payment field. PayPal got its start in 1998, before the tech bubble of the late ’90s burst. Since then, the company has become a household name in online payments, an American-based multinational Silicon Valley fintech with a global reach, a $38 billion market cap, and $33.2 billion in revenues last year.
On the consumer side, PayPal’s services feature convenience. The mobile app allows digital payment through the smartphone,…