Affirm, Lightspeed, Block among Truist's favorites to ride fintech revolution
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Truist Securities analyst Andrew Jeffrey sees "compelling entry points" for digital native and digital adjacent fintechs after a swoon in 2021.
"Although CY2021 ended on a sour note amidst growth valuation carnage, we see an unusual opportunity for long-term growth investors," he writes in a note to clients.

Reiterates bullish views on Block Inc. (SQ
-1.1%), Affirm (AFRM
-1.9%) Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD
-1.4%), Marqeta (MQ
+2.5%), Shift4 Payments (FOUR
-1.1%), Repay Holdings (RPAY
-1.3%), and Paya Holdings (PAYA
-0.6%).
"We argue growing adoption of POS [point of sale] software and ramping payments integration is a structural trend supporting years of above-average organic revenue growth for digital native fintechs," Jeffrey says. Digital native names, at the "vanguard of the fintech revolution," include Block, Lightspeed, Affirm, and Marqeta. Digital adjacent names include Shift4, Repay, and Paya.
Lowers price target due to higher growth equity risk premiums: Lightspeed (NYSE:LSPD) to $75 from $100, Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) to $150 from $185, Block (NYSE:SQ) to $250 from $315, and Marqeta to $30 from $40.
Jeffrey says: "The era of fintech conglomerates is over as financial volatility in multiple businesses is a valuation headwind." Pressure on management to break up and simplify complex models is likely to increase, "a trend we would applaud," he says.
He also sees attractive risk/rewards for select legacy fintechs: Mastercard (MA
+0.1%), Visa (V
+0.0%), FLEETCOR (FLT
+2.1%), EVO Payments (EVOP
-0.2%), Global Payments (GPN
-0.5%) and Green Dot (GDOT
+0.7%).
Raises price target on Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) to $175 from $165 and trims price targets for WEX (NYSE:WEX) to $170 from $180 and Western Union (NYSE:WU) to $18 from $20.
Keeps Hold rating on FIS (FIS
+0.7%), Fiserv (FISV
-0.2%), PayPal (PYPL
-2.7%), Western Union (WU
+2.3%), and WEX (WEX
+2.4%).
Take a look at Seeking Alpha's stock screener for payment stocks.
SA contributor Anthony Cataldo sees a health entry point for Block after a 2021 pullback