The Benzinga Moneymaker Series: Top 5 Stocks This Week

Investors are are on the hunt for undervalued, underfollowed and emerging stocks to spot opportunity. The rise of social media and the retail trader gave way to countless methods to uncover new information. For some, this is overwhelming. Benzinga's Moneymaker Index uses a combination of proprietary data and pattern recognition to bring you five stocks each week that are just under the surface and warrant your attention.

The index layers editorial commentary to help you make sense of why these stocks are of interest and whether they broach an area you should be watching as an investor and casual reader. 

Here is the inaugural Benzinga Moneymaker Index for the week of Dec. 1, 2022.

Grindr Inc: The LGBTQ+ friendly social media and dating app company Grindr Inc GRND recently completed a SPAC merger to become a public company. As has been the case with many SPAC mergers, the company saw high volatility around its debut after a high percentage of shares were redeemed as part of the merger, which in turn lowered the float of the public company.

A total of 98% of the shares were redeemed at merger. Shares traded significantly higher around Grindr’s debut before falling. Until share unlocks, the company could see volatility spikes on any positive momentum and the stock will likely see strong mentions on social media.

Cosmos Holdings: Penny stock Cosmos Holdings COSM is a pharmaceutical wholesale and nutritional supplements company. The company has seen shares crater from a 52-week high of $4.51 to a 52-week low of 7 cents, taking investors on a wild ride in 2022. The company saw shares gain over 500% in the last month, with strong mentions on social media and the stock moving up many short squeeze leaderboards.

SoFi Technologies: Fintech company SoFi Technologies SOFI hit 52-week lows this week on the heels of news about the company’s cryptocurrency trading platform. Lawmakers have sent a letter to the Federal Reserve asking for a review of SoFi’s crypto business due to the risks of the highly volatile industry. The news item led to several price target cuts from analysts over the potential for future regulation. Another news peg hitting SoFi shares was the extension of student loan forgiveness by President Joe Biden, which could impact another line of the company’s business. Bank of America analyst Mihir Bhatia said the payment pause extension was bad news for SoFi.

Snowflake Inc: Software company Snowflake Inc SNOW saw shares fall Wednesday after the market close. The move came after the data cloud and business intelligence firm reported third-quarter financial results. Third quarter revenue was up 67% year-over-year, beating Street estimates. The company’s guidance for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year likely led investors to pull back. 

Multiple analysts were out with lower price targets Thursday after the company’s report. Snowflake shares have fallen 56% in the last year and now sit around $150. The company previously saw shares rise to around the $400 level in both 2020 and 2021.

Perfect Corp: Virtual beauty company Perfect Corp PERF completed its SPAC merger in early November and is now a publicly traded company hoping to continue its disruption of the beauty market using augmented reality and artificial intelligence. Perfect reported financial results earlier this week and saw revenue grow 22% year-over-year for the period ending Sep. 30, 2022. Perfect ended the third quarter with 483 brand clients and 151 key customers. CEO Alice Chang cited strong contract renewal rates, low client churn and strong cross-selling and upselling momentum as highlights from the third quarter. The company also announced a new virtual makeup try-on deal with Avon earlier this week.

That’s it for this first edition of the Benzinga Moneymaker Index. The five stocks mentioned above all saw a large amount of volume across Benzinga over the last week. Stay tuned for next week’s report and follow along with Benzinga Pro for all the latest headlines and top market moving stories here.

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