Dave Skyrockets 540% in a Year: Should You Buy the Stock Now?
DAVE's performance is significantly higher than that of its industry peers, Katapult Holdings KPLT and MediaAlpha MAX. KPLT and MAX have declined 43.8% and 33.5% over the past year, respectively.
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Dave has also outperformed Katapult Holdings, MediaAlpha, and the industry as a whole in the past six months. DAVE shares have soared 152.6%, outperforming the industry's 3.1% rise. Katapult Holdings and MediaAlpha have gained 38.5% and 3.2% in the past six months, respectively.
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Dave shares have performed exceptionally well over the past year and the past six months. Investors must be flattered by this performance and are planning to initiate a buy. We have analyzed the stock and answered whether buying is the option or if investors should stay away from it.
DAVE's CashAI is its proprietary underwriting engine, which has been proven to boost the company's financial performance, as evidenced by the first-quarter 2025 results. During this quarter, non-GAAP variable profit surged 67% year over year, with variable margin growing 950 basis points (bps). The credit goes to CashAI and its ability to improve Dave's cost management strategy, improving its profit margin.
CashAI improved customer engagement, with ExtraCash originations increasing 46% year over year to $1.5 billion. Dave managed to approve higher ExtraCash amounts due to CashAI's ability to underwrite profitably despite it being a seasonally soft quarter.
Furthermore, it enhanced the company's credit performance, evidenced by a 33-basis-point year-over-year improvement in the 28-day delinquency rate. CashAI leveraged insights and performance data to reduce the percentage of provisions for credit losses to origination from the 0.94% reported in the year-ago quarter down to 0.69%.
With an expansion in the training data set, we expect CashAI to identify good risk and maximize approval rates, retaining its competitive edge. The underwriting engine's ability to precisely manage delinquency and loss rates while improving profitability puts Dave further than the existing fintech players that use traditional methods that are slower and less agile.
Return on equity (ROE), a measure of profitability, reflects how effectively a company uses its shareholders' investments to generate earnings. Dave's trailing 12-month ROE is 59.2% compared with the industry's average of 6.6%.
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DAVE's current ratio in the first quarter of 2025 was 8.59, significantly higher than the industry average of 1.84. The metric has improved from the previous quarter and the year-ago quarter by 6.7% and 15%, respectively. The current ratio exceeds 1, which signals a positive outlook for investors by indicating the company's capacity to pay off short-term obligations efficiently.
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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company's 2025 revenues is pegged at $474.4 billion, suggesting a 36.7% increase from the year-ago reported level. For 2026, the top line is anticipated to rise 24.2% year over year.
The consensus estimate for 2025 earnings is $8.74 per share, implying 66.8% growth from the year-ago reported level. For 2026, the bottom line is anticipated to rise 32.3% year over year.
Over the past 60 days, two EPS estimates for both 2025 and 2026 have been revised upward with no downward adjustments. In the same period, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings has gained 31.4% and that for 2026 has soared 42.4%. These upward revisions highlight analysts' growing confidence in Dave's ability to improve its financial performance, fueled by its strong business model and robust growth potential.
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We understand Dave's CashAI, an AI-based underwriting engine, is improving its credit quality. In doing so, the company has enhanced its financial performance and finds itself competing with fintech giants. Banking on this technology, the company can easily dominate in a space where fintech players rely on traditional methods that are slower and less agile.
Apart from this, DAVE's robust capital return and strong liquidity position raise the green flag for investors. In addition to that, the company is fundamentally strong and has upward EPS revisions, exuding growing confidence among analysts.
Factors like these compel us to recommend a 'Buy' on DAVE stocks. Investors who are looking to dip their hands in the fintech space must add Dave to their portfolio now.
DAVE sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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