Yahoo Finance Synchrony (SYF) GiftNow to Aid Home Chef Digital Gift Program
Synchrony Financial SYF recently won a deal for its GiftNow platform from Home Chef. A subsidiary of retailer The Kroger Co. KR, Home Chef is introducing its new digital gifting program, which will be integrated with the GiftNow platform.
One of the nation’s premier consumer financial services companies, Synchrony is expected to provide Home Chef customers with options of purchasing personalized e-gift cards and physical gift cards. Customers will likely be able to schedule a gift-card delivery up to three months ahead of shipment. It will also enable clients to purchase gift cards for a group, which will help organizations to send gifts to employees.
The move from Kroger’s subsidiary comes at a time when e-commerce activities are ramping up due to the pandemic. Given continuous technological improvements and efficiency, this trend is expected to stay. Also, sales are expected to rise as holidays approach. Kroger announced during October-end that Home Chef had reached the $1-billion milestone in annual sales.
Synchrony made a similar deal with Peet’s Coffee a few days back. In 2018, Synchrony acquired Loop Commerce, which enhanced the acquirer’s product lines including GiftNow. The latest deal further highlights the success of Synchrony’s accretive buyouts. The company has been making concerted efforts to effectively carry out strategic acquisitions to boost business growth. The latest deals will boost the GiftNow platform’s utilization, in turn helping SYF generate more cash.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Synchrony currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked players in the Finance space include Blackstone Inc. BX and Houlihan Lokey, Inc. HLI, each carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Headquartered in New York, Blackstone is well poised to benefit from its fund-raising ability, revenue mix and inorganic expansion strategies. BX’s 2021 earnings are expected to rise 64.2% to $4.35 per share. It has witnessed two upward estimate revisions in the past 30 days compared with none in the opposite direction. Blackstone beat earnings estimates in all the last four quarters, with an average of 23.7%.
Houlihan Lokey — headquartered in Los Angeles, CA — provides multiple financial services to clients all over the world. Its growing footprint in Europe and Asia’s investment banking services field will help the company boost strategic and shareholder value in the coming days. The full-year fiscal 2022 bottom line of Houlihan Lokey is expected to rise 36.8% year over year to $6.32 per share. In the past 30 days, HLI has witnessed four upward estimate revisions and no downward movement. The company beat earnings estimates in all the last four quarters, with an average of 39.5%.
Price Performances
Synchrony has jumped 43.3% in the year-to-date period compared with the industry’s 21.8% rise.
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During this time period, Blackstone and Houlihan Lokey have surged 128.7% and 72.5%, respectively.
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