What’s After Afterpay (ASX:APT)?

Most people who invest on the ASX will already be familiar with Afterpay (Afterpay Touch Group Ltd, ASX:APT). It is one of the best returning stocks on the ASX over the past few years. At the time of this article, it was up more than 10 times since listing at $1.00 in May 2016. The share price reached around $20 in August of this year and lots of people have been talking about it in the news. Many Australians follow the company, and quite a few bought shares. Its rapid share price gains have been impressive.

Our data indicates that Afterpay Touch Group is worth AU$2.7b. Afterpay Touch Group has a market capitalisation of AU$2.7b, so we would expect some institutional investors to have noticed the stock. Our analysis of the ownership of the company shows that institutions own shares in the company.

A US listed company that is in also in the payments space and that has seen similar growth to Afterpay, is the US payments company Square. It listed on the NYSE in late 2015 at around $9 per share and reached a high of over $100 in September this year. Square grew in the US and then built up its business in new markets. Now it offers a service called “Installments” which was announced in October and is taking on Afterpay. Of course, both companies could end up succeeding.

In the last year, Afterpay’s revenue is up 397%, which is super impressive. Afterpay Touch Group’s net debt is 5.0% of its market cap; that’s not too bad.

The 5 analysts covering APT view its longer term outlook with a positive sentiment. Given that it becomes hard to forecast far into the future, broker analysts tend to project ahead roughly three years. This leads to an EPS of A$0.43 in the final year of projections, 2021. That’s strong growth.

For those who invested in Afterpay or for those who missed the run, the question they are probably asking themselves is: where will the next Afterpay come from? Many people might be looking for the next investment that could go up 10 times.

Some investors choose to only look in Australia for such big winners. But there are also 10 baggers available in the USA. After all, it is a much bigger market.

If you are looking for the next Afterpay, you need to do some work to give yourself a chance at succeeding. So you might want to focus your time where the growth companies are and when 98% aren’t in Australia, it could be time to look at the US market.

So, if you’re wondering how you can invest in US companies like Square directly from Australia, try Stake at hellostake.com. .