Two ways to broaden your Finance exposure

Article Excerpt

While banks like J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo (see page 101) should make up the bulk of your Finance sector holdings, we also recommend adding niche financial services stocks like these two. EBAY INC. $64 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 489.0 million; Market cap: $31.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) operates e-commerce websites in over 190 countries, where sellers pay fees to auction items or offer them at fixed prices. Roughly half of its revenue comes from markets outside of the U.S. The company continues to shift its focus to more-profitable lines of business, such as trading cards and collectible sneakers. It’s also opening up its sites to advertising from registered sellers and third parties. In the quarter ended June 30, 2024, advertising revenue totalled $384 million, up 12.6% from a year earlier. That helped lift overall revenue by 1.8%, to $2.57 billion from $2.54 billion. Earnings also moved up 8.0%, to…