{"id":51384,"date":"2025-10-06T21:16:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=51384"},"modified":"2025-10-06T21:16:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:16:43","slug":"figure-gets-mixed-wall-street-debut-as-kbw-bofa-diverge-on-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=51384","title":{"rendered":"Figure Gets Mixed Wall Street Debut as KBW, BofA Diverge on Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Two major Wall Street investment banks have issued differing views on the newly public fintech firm Figure (FIGR), as the company works to expand its blockchain-based lending and capital markets platform beyond home equity lines of credit.<\/p>\n<p>Keefe, Bruyette &amp; Woods (KBW) initiated coverage of Figure with an \u201coutperform\u201d rating and a 12-month price target of $48.50, suggesting 17.5% upside. The bank praised Figure\u2019s early dominance in tokenized credit markets, where it holds 73% of the private credit segment and 39% of all tokenized real-world assets, according to KBW\u2019s estimates.<\/p>\n<p>Founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, Figure went public in September and has climbed 12% since its IPO. Its core business tokenizes HELOCs and connects borrowers to investors through a vertically integrated platform that includes loan origination, distribution and a digital asset marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>KBW sees Figure\u2019s tech stack as underutilized and capable of supporting a wider range of credit assets, such as first-lien mortgages and personal loans. It also pointed to upside from products like Figure Exchange and a tokenization tool for third-party assets.<\/p>\n<p>Another broker, Bernstein, earlier initiated coverage on the stock with a more upbeat outlook. It rates Figure as an &#8220;outperform&#8221; with $54 price target, citing that the firm is doing for lending what stablecoins did for payments, tokenizing traditional assets to make markets faster and more efficient. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2025\/10\/06\/figure-is-a-blockchain-pioneer-in-credit-markets-says-bernstein-initiating-at-outperform\">Figure Is a Blockchain Pioneer in Credit Markets, Says Bernstein, Initiating at Outperform<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>The flipside<\/h2>\n<p>Bank of America, however, took a more cautious view. <\/p>\n<p>It initiated coverage with a \u201cneutral\u201d rating and a $41 price target, citing risks around execution, regulation and Figure\u2019s dependence on its HELOC business, which still generates most of its profits and is not yet fully blockchain-native.<\/p>\n<p>BofA sees Figure Connect \u2014 a new marketplace that helps lenders match with capital providers \u2014 as the company\u2019s next growth driver. The bank expects it to account for 75% of the firm\u2019s total revenue growth between 2024 and 2027.<\/p>\n<p>While both banks acknowledged Figure\u2019s leadership in a neglected corner of consumer lending, they diverged on how easily the company can scale into a broader fintech platform. BofA cited possible roadblocks onboarding large institutions, competition from other tech providers and changing regulatory rules, including updates to the Truth in Lending Act.<\/p>\n<p>The difference in price targets \u2014 $48.50 from KBW versus $41 from BofA \u2014 reflects the uncertainty surrounding whether Figure\u2019s blockchain infrastructure can transition from a niche use to a more central role in modern finance.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Read more:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2025\/09\/11\/blockchain-based-lender-figure-prices-ipo-at-usd25-per-share-raising-nearly-usd788m\"><strong><em>Blockchain-Based Lender Figure Prices IPO at $25 Per Share, Raising Nearly $788M<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two major Wall Street investment banks have issued differing views on the newly public fintech firm Figure (FIGR), as the company works to expand its blockchain-based lending and capital markets platform beyond home equity lines of credit. Keefe, Bruyette &amp; Woods (KBW) initiated coverage of Figure with an \u201coutperform\u201d rating and a 12-month price target [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-51384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}