Shares in this Australian company grew 740% during Covid-19
Buy-now-pay-later provider Afterpay is the darling of the Australian share market this year, despite the Covid-19 recession.
At the depths of panic selling in March, the stock was as low as $8.90. Now, on the morning of Friday July 10, it's $74.60.
This means if you bought $1,000 of Afterpay shares on March 23, you would now have $8,400. Not bad at all.
This week the fintech company became one of the top 20 largest companies in Australia.
Its co-founders Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen announced this week they would cash in, and are set to pocket $250 million from selling down some of their stake.
Both men will end up on rich lists this year with each now possessing $1.5 billion, according to Nine. Their fortunes were just $182 million when the coronavirus panic started in March.
Molnar, at age 30, is now Australia's youngest self-made billionaire. He beats Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins for the record, who is 32 years old.
While this Australian company has also made many mum-and-dad investors wealthy, the incredible rise has torn experts.
After all, Afterpay has not yet turned a profit.
Is Afterpay overpriced or will it keep growing?
Morningstar thinks it's overvalued, believing its "fair price" to be $24.10. Morgan Stanley thinks it could go as high as $100.
Citi changed its mind from $27.10 to $64.25 in recent times.
While it has plenty of competitors in the buy-now-pay-later field, Afterpay does seem to have first-mover advantage and brand recognition. And there is nothing stopping shops from using multiple providers.
Plus Afterpay's business model sees other businesses – retailers – do the marketing of its services, because it's in their interest to attract additional customers.
Earlier this week, Afterpay announced it would raise $800 million of capital. This war chest could be used to buy up smaller rivals.
Disclosure: The journalist owns Afterpay shares.
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