Changes in US stocks | Lexin (LX.US) surged 16.1%, boosted by a series of measures to develop consumer finance

The Zhitong Finance App learned that US stocks closed on Friday (March 15) EST. Driven by a series of measures to develop consumer finance and the upcoming release of 2024 annual results, China's leading new consumer digital technology service provider Lexin (LX.US) rose 16.1% to a closing price of 10.53 US dollars, with a daily turnover of 605.507 million US dollars.

The 16.1% increase was the biggest increase of Lexin since the beginning of 2025. It also ranked 8th out of 319 Chinese capital gains on the same day; with a turnover of 605.507 million US dollars, it ranked 2nd among the top 10 Chinese securities in terms of increase.

At the market level, US President Trump did not issue a new tariff threat, and the stock market was given a resuscitation. The three major indices all rose more than 1%. By the close, the Dow Jones index was up 1.65%, the S&P 500 was up 2.13%, and the NASDAQ was up 2.61%.

China Securities showed strong performance. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 2.69% to a cumulative increase of 0.37% this week. In addition to Lexin, Wenyuan Zhixing rose more than 13%, New Oriental rose more than 5%, JD rose 4.66%, and Pinduoduo rose 3.18%.

The rise in Lexin's stock price is mainly affected by factors such as the global revaluation of Chinese assets, the imminent launch of the 2024 full-year financial report, and the proposal of a new SLOGAN to clarify the company's new brand positioning.

As one of the economic troika, consumption occupies a central position in the 2025 economic strategy. This year's government task report listed “vigorously boosting consumption, improving investment efficiency, and expanding domestic demand in all aspects” as a top priority, and building a policy package through “three efforts” (improving consumption capacity, increasing high-quality supply, and improving the consumption environment) and “One Action” (special action to boost consumption).

Implementing it into action, on March 14, the General Administration of Financial Supervision issued a notice to propose specific measures to optimize consumer finance policies, starting from enriching financial products, facilitating financial services, and creating a good consumption environment to help boost consumption. Banking financial institutions are also encouraged to increase investment in personal consumer loans on the premise that risks are manageable, set reasonable consumer loan amounts, terms, and interest rates, and optimize resource allocation.

In response to national policies, Lexin recently re-sorted out the “Installment Music” brand positioning and proposed the slogan of “Easy consumption, flexible turnover, just look for installment music”. Through technological innovation and user insight, Xinxin Instalment has launched five core functions, comprehensively upgraded the installment experience, and promoted a 62% year-on-year increase in platform user activity.

In terms of performance, Lexin's 2024 earnings report will be released after the market on March 18 EST. The market is looking forward to this.

As of the first three quarters, Lexin's net profit has reached 1 billion yuan; the market estimates that with Q4 profit, Lexin's profit is likely to reach a three-year high. In view of the continued growth in profits, Lexin announced that it has decided to increase dividends on the basis of continuing dividends twice a year (dividends for the first half of the year were already distributed in October). With the approval of the board of directors, starting in 2025, Lexin's dividend ratio will increase from 20% of the current net profit to 25%.

In addition, Lexin also made significant progress in overseas markets in the second and third quarters of 2024. In the second quarter of 2024, Lexin's loan scale in the Mexican market increased 61% month-on-month, and revenue increased 113% month-on-month; in the third quarter, Lexin's trading users in the Indonesian market increased 31% month-on-month, and transaction volume increased 18% month-on-month.

In the last two months, many well-known brokerage firms, including UBS (UBS), CCB, Citibank, CITIC Lyon, and Huatai, have published research reports covering Lexin, and many have raised their target prices.

In the research report, UBS believes that starting in 2024Q3, it will see huge benefits from Lexin: improved potential asset quality; lower financing costs; and better loan pricing. Based on the above reasons, UBS raised Lexin's 2025-2026 earnings (non-GAAP) by 56% and 103% to 2.1 billion yuan and 3.1 billion yuan respectively; it gave Lexin a “buy rating”. The target price for the next year was $9.6 — the target price of March 6 has already been exceeded.

According to reports, Lexin was founded in August 2013 and is based in Shenzhen, China. It has been actively opening up a broad range of online and offline consumption scenarios through its platforms, connecting hundreds of millions of young Chinese consumers with new consumer brands with the brand concept of “easy consumption and flexible turnover”. In December 2017, Lexin officially launched on NASDAQ in the US.