Robinhood Markets Inc. HOOD shares touched a 52-week high of $40.57 yesterday as it conducted its first-ever Investor Day conference and disclosed its growth plans.
HOOD stock is on a tear this year and the revelation of its future expansion strategy cheered investors. The stock closed 3.5% higher on Wednesday.
Key Takeaways From HOOD’s Investor Day Conference
Product Diversification: HOOD plans to launch Futures in early 2025, which it believes offers a nine-figure revenue opportunity. As an initial step toward Futures, the company launched Event Contracts before the presidential election in October. These contracts had an enormous success with more than 500 million contracts traded within a week of launch.
Presidential Election Contracts Traded
Image Source: Robinhood Markets Inc.
Further, the company is considering expanding into sports betting to a certain degree, which could be done in the form of event contracts.
Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets, said, “We’re keenly looking into that space. Nothing to announce just yet, but it’s so important to our customers and in culture that we’re excited about it.”
Expansion Into Asia: Robinhood announced its plans to launch a brokerage in Asia next year to capitalize on significant global growth opportunities. Tenev mentioned that the company will soon set up a new office in Singapore to serve as HOOD’s headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region.
Earlier this year, the company entered the U.K., offering a few of its trademark services to those clients. In the past year, HOOD has been aiming to expand in international markets to achieve growth beyond its home market.
Boost in Cryptocurrency Space: HOOD plans to emphasize cryptocurrency space through increased tokenization, enhanced capabilities and expansion into the European Union markets. This will lead to further cost efficiency, given the lower cost of running crypto exchanges compared with traditional exchanges.
Q3 2024 LTM Retail Crypto Notional Volume
Image Source: Robinhood Markets Inc.
The Bitstamp acquisition announced in June complements this theme and is expected to boost Robinhood’s international and institutional clients. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
Currently, Robinhood operates in four countries with regulatory authorizations. It has been applying for Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) licenses that would enable it to offer crypto services in European Economic Area member states, boosting its presence in 27 new geographies.
Enhanced Focus on Advisory Solutions: Robinhood intends to leverage its AI capabilities to offer high-quality advisory services at low and competitive pricing. This will enable the company to grow its retail market share.
This July, the company acquired Pluto Capital Inc., an AI-poweredinvestment researchplatform, to enhance its advisory solutions. Further, HOOD announced a deal to acquire TradePMR last month, which complements the increased focus on the wealth management sector. Post-acquisition, HOOD aims to develop a referral program with TradePMR to enable its clients to find and connect with registered investment advisors (RIAs) easily, per their needs. Here, the company will compete with industry-leading players, including Charles Schwab SCHW.
Tenev mentioned that investors who are not currently high net worth find it difficult to access wealth management services, such as tax planning and retirement planning, at an affordable price.
“I think we can offer a much higher level of service, but at a self-serve price point,” he added.
He, alongside other company executives, emphasized cost efficiency and said that the upcoming offering would go beyond ChatGPT-like service.
Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer, said, “We will have pricing that will be extremely competitive and we will do it in a unique way. We think it’ll be transformative in the wealth management space.”
Other Details Provided at HOOD’s Investor Day Conference
Robinhood offers the lowest introductory margin rates compared with its peers SCHW and Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR.
This led to an increase in its margin balances. However, the company still lags behind SCHW and IBKR, which had a margin book of $73 billion and $55 billion, respectively, as of Sept. 30, 2024. On the other hand, HOOD’s margin book was $6.2 billion as of Oct. 31, 2024. The company aims to grow its margin book further through its industry-leading margin rates.
Further, the company anticipates growth in its credit card business, with Robinhood Gold Credit Card fetching a significant portion of the market share. Last year, the company acquired X1 Inc., which provides a no-fee credit card offering with rewards on each purchase.
Additionally, HOOD aims to become a leader in serving active retail investors, given secular tailwinds such as digital banking and increased retail participation.
HOOD’s Zacks Rank & Price Performance
Year to date, HOOD shares have skyrocketed 214%, outperforming the industry’s 44.5% growth.
Year-to-Date Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Currently, Robinhood carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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