Robinhood's second quarter to benefit from meme stock revival, crypto trading

By Manya Saini

(Reuters) - Wall Street expects Robinhood's revenue to hit record highs in the second quarter as retail investors flock to its commission-free app to trade so-called 'meme stocks' and cryptocurrencies.

The return of influencer Keith Gill, known online as "Roaring Kitty", rekindled investor appetite for retail favorites like GameStop, luring mom-and-pop investors back to Robinhood.

Its equity trading volumes surged 82% in April and 76% in May compared with a year ago.

"I expect the company to show growth leveraged to and correlated with stock and crypto markets," said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and CIO at Running Point Capital Advisors.

The company's popularity is immortalized in the retail trading saga of 2021, when it became the platform of choice for people to pump money into meme stocks during the pandemic-era lockdowns.

The 11-year-old trading app has been chasing growth and looking to mature into a full-fledged financial services provider.

"The fundamental story has been improving in recent periods with healthy growth in deposits, margin balances, options/equities trading," Citigroup analysts said.

Meanwhile, sentiment in the crypto markets has also got a boost from signs of easing regulatory constraints after the approval of the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shrugging-off regulatory roadblocks and heavy volatility in the sector, the company is betting on crypto to be its next big avenue for growth.

Its crypto trading volume surged 238% in May, while April recorded a 173% jump compared with a year earlier.

Even as Robinhood benefits from frenetic trading activity, analysts have cautioned the levels may not be sustainable over the long-term.

"Things like Keith Gill's return to social media and crypto ETF euphoria look like trading blips and might not be sustainable trends that analysts can build into their financial models for Robinhood," Schulman said.

The company is set to report results after markets close on Wednesday.

THE FUNDAMENTALS

* Revenue is expected to climb about 32% to $643.34 million in the second quarter, with a 51% surge in transaction-based revenues, per LSEG data.

* Analysts see Robinhood reporting second-quarter earnings per share of 15 cents versus 3 cents a year ago.

WALL STREET SENTIMENT

* Six of 17 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher, nine "hold" and two "sell"

STOCK PERFORMANCE

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)