$Sofi is my largest position.

Sofi is an online bank that focuses on the next generation of personal finance. The majority of its revenue comes from banking - personal loans, home loans, student loans, investments, credit cards, etc. Sofi is innovating the banking sector by offering an attractive savings account (4.6% APR) and, unlike the institutions - $BAC (-0,56 %)
$WFC (-1,02 %)
$CCF etc. - no longer requires physical locations.

Looking beyond the pure banking business $SOFI (-4,68 %) aims to offer the best products as a one-stop-shop financial services platform for consumers and businesses - In the form of a: AWS by FinTech.

Galileo:

$SOFI (-4,68 %) has been the owner of FinTech pioneer Galileo since 2020. Galileo has been manufacturing FinTech products since 2003. They offer technology for payment processing and card issuing. The company offers a platform that enables companies to create and manage different types of payment cards (debit or credit cards) and facilitate transactions with these cards. Essentially, Galileo helps businesses build and operate their own payment systems so that they can offer their customers seamless and secure ways to make purchases and transactions.

Technisys:

Since 2022 $SOFI (-4,68 %) also owner of the FinTech company Technisys. Technisys develops software that helps banks and financial institutions to offer digital banking services to their customers. They develop tools and platforms that make it easier for people to check their account balance, transfer money or apply for loans simply by using their phone. Simply put, Technisys helps banks make online banking better and more convenient.

Cyberbank Konecta:

A concrete use case for $SOFI (-4,68 %) as the owner of these two FinTech companies is the development of the AI-driven digital assistant Cyberbank Konecta (CK), which improves Sofi's user interface. CK has improved customer service by 7% by handling thousands of conversations around the clock without the use of customer service agents.

Vertical integration:

The acquisition of these two companies will $SOFI (-4,68 %) reduce costs and expenses by excluding third-party providers (probably AWS) from the business model of $SOFI (-4,68 %) business model. This will allow $SOFI (-4,68 %) innovate even faster, make more decisions in real time and offer greater personalization to its 7.5 million members.

Since 2020, the number of Galileo accounts has increased from 30 million to 145 million (as of December 2023).

The number of Sofi members (customers with any Sofi account) has increased from 1 million in 2020 to 7.5 million now.

Official bank of the NBA:

Recently, Sofi signed an agreement with the NBA that makes Sofi the official bank of the NBA, NBA 2K (computer game series released annually) and others.

This is of great importance:

Massive amounts of Sofi advertising in arenas and NBA promotions. Some people will certainly switch to $SOFI (-4,68 %) switch to do their banking.

CEO, Anthony Noto, says of the partnership:

"As the next generation of banking, we believe we can help millions of NBA fans across the country reach their financial goals and invest their money the right way."

Contest:

It's no secret that $SOFI (-4,68 %) has massive amounts of threats and competition around it in the FinTech space.

Between the traditional big bank$BAC (-0,56 %)
$JPM (-0,57 %)
$WFC (-1,02 %) etc. & all the smaller players, like $ALLY (-2,35 %)
$SQ (-12,06 %) & $HOOD (-7,16 %) Sofi definitely has an uphill battle when it comes to market share in financial services.

$SOFI (-4,68 %) offers one of the highest yields for a savings account, making it stand out from the crowd - 4.6% APY

I would $ALLY (-2,35 %) as its strongest competitor.

$ALLY (-2,35 %) is a competing online bank that offers a decent savings account (4.35% APY) and pretty much everything that $SOFI (-4,68 %) offers (general banking), but I believe that $SOFI (-4,68 %) with the support of Galileo & Technisys to help with their vertical integration, will have an advantage over time (if they don't already have it now).

$HOOD (-7,16 %) Offers 5% APY on your uninvested cash, but you have to subscribe to Gold to get the benefits. Also, Sofi has many more use cases than Robinhood.

$HOOD (-7,16 %) Should be perfect for investing

$SQ (-12,06 %) & $PYPL (-2,73 %) are more in the area of payment processing.

$SOFI (-4,68 %) is for EVERYTHING to do with personal finance - that's what sets Sofi apart from the other, more niche FinTech companies.

Advantage of General Banking:

Let's say a teenage person, watches NBA games and happens to be looking for a bank to set up deposits/salary for the summer job he/she is about to get.

The person is not thinking about investing money yet or transferring money to other people/companies

the person is just trying to earn money.

He/she sees an ad as part of an NBA commercial, be it on NBA 2k or as part of the basketball game the person is watching and decides to go with the first bank that catches his/her attention.

$SOFI (-4,68 %) will surely catch their attention long before their parents can convince them to go to their trusted bank. $BAC (-0,56 %) , $JPM (-0,57 %) or $WFC (-1,02 %) to go.

What happens if, for example, 3 years later the same child wants to apply for a student loan?

$SOFI (-4,68 %) will receive interest payments from this student for a decade.

What happens if this person starts looking for an apartment?

$SOFI (-4,68 %) will receive interest payments on this loan for a lifetime.

What I'm saying is that a customer that $SOFI (-4,68 %) once acquired is likely to stay for life. (As a rule, you don't change banks so quickly once trust has been built up, no serious mistakes have been made and you have everything in the area of finance/insurance with this bank).

Especially if CK (Cyberbank Konecta) continues to improve and the customer service removes any urge to wander.

This lifetime income stream from every member will lead to this company slowly growing into a huge banking institution.

Along with Galileo and Technisys slowly eliminating the need for third parties within the organization, this will inevitably lead to $SOFI (-4,68 %) becoming one of the most cash-rich players in the FinTech space over time.

This is Sofi's competitive advantage over other smaller FinTech companies.

Continued vertical integration and greater TAM (Total Addressable Market / Total Available Market)

Sofi is the future of banking.

Key figures - Q4'23

Sofi has 7.5 million members, 44% more than last year (5.2 million). This number has been growing by more than 300,000 members quarter-on-quarter for over 2 years. In the last quarter, the number of members grew by over 500K. The number of Sofi members has been growing quarter on quarter for years.

The number of products* stands at 11.1 million, an increase of 441% compared to 7.9 million in the previous year. This number has grown steadily over the years, just like the number of members. I prefer this performance to a one-off boom. This allows the company to improve its capabilities as capacity grows.

Imagine if you were randomly placed in the CEO position of a large company tomorrow. You would probably do a terrible job if you had been groomed for the position over the last 3 years. The same goes for the number of customers a company has.

*This number refers to the total number of credit and financial products used since Sofi was founded. Imagine that this figure indicates how many services have been used. Personal loans, student loans, savings accounts, investment accounts, etc. If a user has two loans of the same type - 2 personal loans - then it counts as one, but if a user has different loan types - 1 personal loan and 1 home loan - then it counts as 2.

Galileo accounts* are at 145 million, up 11% from 131 million last year. The more this account grows, the more Sofi's business diversifies. Galileo not only improves Sofi's UX, but also develops products for other companies, expanding the business model not only to B2C, but also to B2B.

*Number of users using Galileo-based products, including virtual card products, virtual wallets, peer-to-peer and bank-to-bank transfers, advanced paychecks and more. Galileo products are also the main driver of tech platform accounts, as Technisys is not yet fully ready to be included in the segment.

Credit products* are at 1.6 million, up 24% from 1.3 million last year. IMO this metric is more important than financing products. Here, transactions are concluded for life. Student loans, home loans, products that need to be paid off for life. These products are the gifts that keep on giving. Especially in the current economic environment, Sofi can charge extremely high interest rates until the Federal Reserve decides to lower rates. Imagine paying for a $400,000 Sofi loan, but paying an extra $600,000 in interest over the course of 30 years - that's tough, but great for the lender!

*Relative to the number of personal loans, student loans and home loans.

The number of financial products* is 9.4 million, up 45% from 6.5 million last year. Like every key figure, this figure has been rising steadily over several years. This is an indicator of how many accounts Sofi has to which people transfer money. In Q4 2023, Sofi stated that more than half of new users of Sofi money (current accounts and savings accounts) signed up for direct deposit within 30 days. That's great. That's how you retain members for life. It starts with a summer job, then a career, then investing with Sofi, then looking at their other products. This is the gateway that paves the way to the next generation bank - Direct Deposits.

*Relative to the number of the following accounts: Current Account & Savings, Investing, Credit Cards & more.

Finance:

Income:

Income has risen sharply in recent years.

Sofi has increased its annual revenue from USD 565 million in 2020 to USD 2.1 billion in 2023.

Much less than $ALLY (-2,35 %) but at least Sofi is growing EVERY year.

Annual sales growth:

2021: +74% compared to the previous year

2022: +60% annually

2023: +33% YoY

2024: Estimated +16% YoY

2025: Estimated 17% YoY

Profitability:

In Q4 2023, Sofi finally announced a net profit for the first time, whereupon the share price rose by 20%.

We are still in the early stages of this company's profitability, with forecasts suggesting that it will be maintained in the future.

Guidance:

The company forecasts 2026 GAAP EPS of $0.55 to $0.80 and further EPS growth of 20-25% beyond 2026.

This means that Sofi's unprofitable days are over and earnings per share should increase over the next few years.

Sofi expects the following revenues for the period from 2023 to 2026:

Revenue: +20-25%

Revenue from financial services: +50%

Tech Platform Revenue: +mid -20%

Revenue from loans: +mid-teens%

Either way, this company has massive growth ahead of it, which is likely to accelerate over the next few years.

Balance sheet

Sofi has about $3B in cash and $5.2B in debt. Total liabilities: $24B

Not the strongest cash position, but not the worst either. This will improve as profitability improves.

Analysts:

Turnover:

Analysts currently expect Sofi's annual turnover to grow by only 16% in 2024 and by 17% in 2025.

This is not in line with the forecast of average sales growth of +20-25% from '23 - '26

EPS:

For the next 2 quarters, analysts only expect Sofi to remain profitable with expected EPS of $0.01 for Q1 and Q2. They do not expect EPS to accelerate.

What happens if Sofi outperforms the market?

The analysts also expect Sofi to report annual EPS of only $0.08 for 2024 and $0.25 for 2025.

Either the analysts expect a boom in 2026 or their estimates for Sofi are too low for the next few years.

Overall, I expect a jump in earnings over the next few quarters.

Valuation:

Analysts expecting Sofi to report just $0.08 for 2024 equates to a Fwd PE of 100+

Assuming where the company will be in 2026, this is too low - the P/E ratio is even significantly lower.

A decent acceleration of $0.25 is expected for 2025, which equates to a P/E of 29, but I think that's still too low compared to their vision for 2026.

Sofi will report higher earnings per share in the next few years, which means that the P/E ratio is much lower than what they are currently reporting.

Closing words:

Not only do I believe that Sofi has a bright future ahead of them with their sticky business model and strategic thinking, but I also believe that Wall Street has slept through Generation Z's online bank.

Normally people have their bank for life and this is the next generation's bank.

What happens when their youthful 7.5 million members grow up and start needing student loans, home loans, credit cards, etc.?

The money they make from those 7.5 million members will accelerate/grow as their members' lifestyles become more mature and expansive and they make more money.

It starts with a savings account, then you start investing with $SOFI (-4,68 %) then you set up direct deposit, then a credit card, etc.

The business model is very consistent.

Think about the last time you changed your bank .....

I sometimes find it too difficult to change brokers, even though there are brokers with lower transaction costs in Austria.

Because mine is tax-simple and I don't have to worry about it myself!

A one-stop store in Austria would be a blessing, but unfortunately I think this will take a while yet, if you look at our banking system, regulation and data protection.

For these reasons I am $SOFI (-4,68 %) so convinced.

$SOFI (-4,68 %) is the bank of the future.

About Galileo:

https://www.galileo-ft.com/about/

About Technisys:

https://www.technisys.com/#:~:text=Technisys%20is%20now%20part%20of,products%20across%20industries%20and%20geographies

About Cyberbank Konecta:

https://www.galileo-ft.com/news/galileo-enables-ai-driven-conversational-banking-engine-with-cyberbank-konecta-as-a-service/

About NBA Partnership:

https://pr.nba.com/sofi-nba-partnership/

GERIT Investment Partnership ⛵️

⚜️ 2023 ⚜️

Annual summary:

(with this post I can delete all others from my profile)

January:

Not only that I getquin 🖤 at the beginning of January discovered no, I also learned more about Ted Weschler as a person, about his strategy and function at Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B (-0,13 %) at Berkshire Hathaway.

Based on the information that came out of the interview with him, I made the assumption that he was responsible for the purchase of Ally Financial $ALLY (-2,35 %) purchase.

February:

"Shameless Cloning"

It was the time when I had been studying Mohnish Pabrai for months, his book "The Dhando Investor" and also copied Warren Buffett's sale of TSMC. $TSM (-0,58 %) was also copied.

So the move was very obvious and my first Ally Financial $ALLY (-2,35 %) shares found their way into the portfolio.

March:

Microsoft $MSFT (-1,57 %) announces in the course of the takeover of Activision Blizzard $ATVI a "10-year legal agreement" with Nintendo $7974 (-0,44 %) with Nintendo. Games such as Call of Duty will also be available on the Switch (2).

That was the first
milestone for my Nintendo investment case, which was released in December from the nostalgia out of nostalgia.

In March, however, there was another very special special
highlightwhich I will probably never forget:

I was on a Q&A Zoom call with Guy Spierwhom I studied very intensively alongside Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger, and it was through him that I came across Mohnish Pabrai in the first place. I was able to talk to him and also ask him a question.

On 15.03 another pleasant news in the media:

Canadian Pacific's $CP (-0,67 %) $28 billion merger with Kansas City Southern was approved.

April:

In April, my job took me 6 weeks to the south of Bavaria, at the time I had no idea that it would be not the last visit.

Here I took part in the community "I'm doing so well, I drive several 100 kilometers to drink bad beer - Challenge" and luckilythanks to the good Bavarian beer, "failed".

May:

The first investmentsetback of the year and unfortunately not the last.

21.05. Sea Limited $SE (-2,53 %) The share price fell from € 81 to € 64.50 after the quarterly figures.

There was also the first "Shameless Cloning" learning effect for me. So, although I did more research myself than with Ally Financial, Restoration Hardware $RH (-7,28 %) from Ted Weschler (/Todd Combs) but this position was suddenly dropped from the Berkshire portfolio and I was able to (fortunately) with a small sell with a small profit.

June:

In June Oliver @EValueinvest ) from his trip to Omaha, Nebraska to visit the Berkshire Hathaway
$BRK.A (+0,95 %)
Annual General Meeting and wrote a great article with lots of valuable tips about the event itself and went into detail about his highlights from the famous Q&A. In addition, he organized a little raffle where I won a baseball with the signatures of the two legends. two legends with the signatures of the two legends. I am still very grateful. 🙏🏻

July:

On 13.07 I have a small key figures & est. EPS analysis on Visa $V (-0,16 %) and a "more speculative" / time-limited buy.

August:

My first investor meeting!

This took place with a handful of people in Hamburg, I took a lot with me, was able to make contacts and simply had a good time.

At that time, I made my first arbitrage investment, Johnson & Johnson $JNJ (+2,12 %) spun off Kenvue $KVUE (+4,6 %) and floated it on the stock exchange.

So far, the "stock market year" has gone very well..

but that should change at the latest the day Sea Ltd. once again reported quarterly figures that probably didn't suit the market at all. The management's events and direction were foreseeable or at least should not have been so negatively surprising.

The two most negative points were:

> further share dilution

(capital dilution)

> renewed focus on aggressive growth, at the expense of profitability.

The share reacted accordingly and fell to a new 52-week low of € 37.50.

Here I also bought again bought again. Time will tell whether I am right with the investment, at the moment it doesn't feel like it.

When I started the investment, I did have 2 years for an entry entrybut indisputably made mistakes, at least in the valuation at the time, and paid too much. I now have to go through this and stick to the long-term perspective hold on.

September & October:

"The calm before the storm."

November:

Was the worst month, not only did I have to go back to Bavaria for a few weeks, I also had to deal with a few things in my private life and somehow everything came at once.

I had to change my bank at short notice, had to struggle with my health (I injured myself doing sports, among other things) and my long-term relationship fell apart, with Bavaria being one of the main arguments, so the weekend before I went down almost 850 km, I had a bad move, commuting something over 1200 km back and forth and only eating McDonalds $MCD (+0,5 %) only from McDonalds.

December:

finally vacation!

Spent 2 days with the family over Christmas and then from 27.12 to 06.01, spent the days in Denmark, New Year's Eve in Copenhagen and New Year's Day in the Airbnb beach house! 🌊🌊🏠 ❄️🇩🇰

Outlook 2024:

Stock market

There has been an update in the Nintendo investment case, a long-standing shareholder presented a comprehensive update in a Zoom call. It took two days to check all the figures, especially the theme park & movie division, as there was no longer a need to work with assumptions, as there are now relevant figures available.

This has now led to a major additional purchase at my fair value from 2022.

Professional

I am particularly looking forward to the professional outlook, so towards the end of the year I will be working for 4 months to Florida, USA 🇺🇸.

I remain excited, look forward to new challenges and am happy to be surprised again.

Private

I just want to concentrate on my health, get back into sport and take a break from work more often, eat out more, find an additional hobby and stop traveling. not forget about traveling. ✈️🌴!

Wishing you all an exciting 2024 and good health! ♥️

Yours
GERIT 🐅

New satellite position with $ALLY (-2,35 %) opened.

What do you think of the company?

$ALLY (-2,35 %)

The figures presented today and especially the outlook are very clearly above analysts' consensus... Finally, there is (significant) movement in the share price🚀🚀. Of course, I remain invested and am pleased about a great combination of dividend development and price potential.

Who else is still in?

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 🗞️

𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗳𝗹𝗶𝘅 𝗿𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗯 / 𝗭𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼 𝗸𝗮𝘂𝗳𝘁 𝗲𝗶𝗻 / 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼.𝗰𝗼𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝘇𝗮𝗵𝗹𝘁

𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀𝘇𝗮𝗵𝗹𝗲𝗻 📈

Today, among others, Schlummberger N. V. ($SLB (-1,54 %)) and Ally Financial Inc ($ALLY (-2,35 %)) present their quarterly figures.

𝗘𝘅-𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 📅

As of today, among others, Colgate - Palmolive Co ($CL (+2,47 %)) and Kaiser Alumiium Corp ($KALU (-3,51 %)) are trading ex-dividend.

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀 🏛️

Netflix ($NFLX (-1,73 %)) - The streaming pioneer Netflix had to accept heavy losses yesterday. After-hours, the stock fell up to - 20%. The reason was the disappointing user growth in the quarterly figures reported yesterday. At first glance, the figures did not look bad, as earnings were above expectations and revenue was in line with expectations. However, for the streaming service, the most important metric is user growth, Netflix only recorded 8.3 million new subscribers in Q4 2021 instead of the predicted 8.5 million. The outlook was also disappointing, with user growth of just 2.5 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Zalando ($ZAL (-1,25 %)) - DAX 40 company Zalando wants to launch a share buyback program worth 200 million euros. In total, up to 2.2 million own shares are to be repurchased. The purchased shares are to be used mainly for stock option programs for employees and members of the Management Board.

𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 💎

Crypto.com - Following the hacking attack on the crypto exchange Crypto.com, the company has now announced that they will pay for all damages. According to the company's statements, all damaged have already been fully compensated. Additionally, the CEO made the following statement regarding the security of the trading platform, "We invest heavily in cyber security and have more than 200 experts who have built a very robust infrastructure over the past few years."

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