Financials are the best-performing category in 2024, and while they are widely seen as having more room to operate as a sector, some are even better positioned. The S&P 500 financials sector has soared 36% so far this year, outpacing the communications services and information technology sectors, which include all of the fast-growing large-cap technology stocks. In particular, investors expect financial companies to benefit after President-elect Donald Trump wins the election and promises to ease business regulations. This month alone, the group is up 10%, double the return of the S&P 500. “We are overweight financials and expect to stay that way for quite some time,” Sam Stoval, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, said of global capital requirements. 2024 The overall financial sector, represented by the Sector SPDR Fund (XLF), and the bank stocks in the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE), each stock itself could gain 10% and 15% over the next 12 months, Ginsburg said: “If the bull market continues, the upside for these fintech companies could be 3-4x what we see in XLF overall. The tech analyst said Block is an example of a fintech company that could break out. He said the stock last traded around $90 but could “easily” rise more than 75% to $100 per share by the end of 2025. $160. The stock is a Wall Street consensus Buy, according to the CNBC Analyst Consensus Tool. PayPal could rise nearly 40% to $125 from its recent price of around $87. Toast is another name Ginsburg is betting on. To be sure, financial stocks are likely to be punished first if the broader market corrects, Ginsburg said. But even with heightened market sentiment, he expects the fundamentals of the bull market to remain intact.
