The bulls are back in the market again as the U.S. economy demonstrates resilience. The unemployment rate remains steady at a low 4.1%, inflation is moderating, and interest rates are on their way down. Although tariff talks are still in the air, many companies are growing, and many trade deals are being reached with other countries. Confidence is in the air.
Digital bank SoFi Technologies(NASDAQ: SOFI) has high exposure to economic trends, and investors are getting excited about it again. It’s up 68% since the beginning of May, and as the economy improves, there could be more good times coming. SoFi reports second-quarter earnings on July 29. Should you buy SoFi stock before then?
There are many online banks that have cropped up over the past few years, but SoFi has carved out a niche with the students and young professionals it targets. Users appreciate its simple approach to finance and easy-to-use interface, as well as its brand and marketing style.
It reports consistent strong growth, and profits are also on the rise. In the 2025 first quarter, adjusted net revenue increased 33% year over year, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) increased from $0.02 last year to $0.06 this year. It added 800,000 new members, a quarterly record, and a 34% increase from last year.
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As a young company just getting started and rolling out new products and features, it has a strategy of attracting new members through some of its low-fee and high-rate products, as well as its on-target marketing and branding. Its goal is to keep these members and cross-sell them more products across its expanding platform.
SoFi got a banking charter in 2022 when it acquired Golden Pacific Bancorp, and it now has a slew of financial services and products that it hopes to turn into a one-stop shop for an individual’s financial journey. Since its core customer is a young professional, often in their first job, its clientele is often moving up on the financial ladder and bringing home a steady — and growing — paycheck. 90% of SoFi Money deposits come from direct deposit members, and that’s a rich and reliable source of funding for the bank.
Building out the platform has come with many benefits for SoFi. It started its own journey as a lending company, and that’s still its core segment, but I would no longer call it SoFi’s bread and butter. Its non-lending individual services in the Financial Services segment are growing faster, more than doubling in Q1, and they account for an increasing percentage of the whole. In Q1, financial services revenue was $303 million, while lending revenue was $413 million.
Its third segment, Tech Platform, has been somewhat of a disappointment in its growth, but it also serves to diversify the business, and it’s profitable and growing. These non-lending segments offered stability and growth when interest rates were higher, protecting the business from what could have been devastating results.
The market is enthusiastic about SoFi’s future prospects. Although it’s still fairly young, it has demonstrated that it’s well-run, innovative, and can capture market share.
Although most of its products are pretty standard, it does offer some out-of-the-box services and solutions that appeal to a digital-savvy clientele. Recently, it brought back cryptocurrency trading on its app, which was highly celebrated with a stock jump. It also said it would begin to offer international wire transfer alternatives on a blockchain network that would be easily accessible through its app, and it explained that it has broad ambitions in adding crypto and blockchain-based products to add value throughout its financial ecosystem.
Since SoFi’s stock rose after it announced these new services last month, at least some investor optimism is already priced into the stock. When it releases results on Tuesday, it may have to be a flawless quarter to gain more. The price is already starting to sag a bit as it gets closer to the report.
In Q1, credit metrics improved year over year, and it will be important to watch these trends. The market’s reaction is also typically related to whether or not the company beats Wall Street’s expectations. It’s looking for $0.06 in EPS again, which is the high end of management’s guidance, and $804.5 million in revenue, also on management’s high end. SoFi tends to give conservative guidance and beat it.
There’s a real chance that SoFi stock will drop if there’s anything negative about the quarter or the outlook. SoFi stock is expensive, trading at 3.5 times book value and 51 times earnings, which means it’s susceptible to falling if there’s anything the market doesn’t like. However, given improving economic trends, there’s a lot of room for optimism here.
Since you can’t time the market, and there’s no way to know what the report will hold, it doesn’t matter if you buy before or after. If you have a long-term outlook, you could buy the stock today, and be prepared to hold on through dips and jumps.
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Jennifer Saibil has positions in SoFi Technologies. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
