Robinhood debuted Thursday on the Nasdaq, listing at $38 a share. Here’s what experts think of the company and the stock.
Robinhood debuted Thursday on the Nasdaq, listing at $38 a share. Here’s what experts think of the company and the stock. Steve Weiss, chief investment officer and managing partner at Short Hills Capital, debunks some of the myths he sees around the company. «No.1, they’re not disruptors. They’re going into a business and they’re offering prices which are free, which many, many others are doing. So, I don’t think they’re a disruptor. No.2, they haven’t democratized investing. That’s been democratized a long, long time ago and they’re talking out of two sides of their mouth because they are going to own I believe about 16% of the company, but control over 60% of the vote. So, let’s go where their intentions are, which is not one shareholder, one vote. That’s really poor governance. Now, I don’t think [CEO] Vlad [Tenev] – he’s done a great job taking it to this point, but thank god for the pandemic for them because that fueled the growth. They were bumping along, they were growing, but you cannot value this company as a disruptor when it’s not. You’ve got to value it comparing it to the others that offer a much broader line of services.» Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at iCapital Network, said the timing of Robinhood’s IPO looks favorable. «This is a red-hot environment for IPOs.… The valuation of this particular IPO is not that out of whack with the reality that we see for some of the fintech names.
