Lloyds shares have taken a hard hit. Let’s face it, not just over the last six months due to coronavirus but ever since the financial crisis, this banking giant has struggled through over a decade of issues. It’s small wonder then, that whilst some other stocks quickly recovered from Coronavirus, Lloyds continued to hold a poor performance.

Last week saw some bad press for the bank as the BBC revealed that black staff at the bank are paid a fifth less than their white colleagues. The large disparity was worsened by the fact that black workers made up only a dismal 0.6 percent of the bank’s senior management prompting the firm pledge to increase the figure five-fold.

Last week also saw the company take a hit on the stock market as its shares dipped over 10 per cent. However, some good news today as the stock begins to recover and is back up over 5 per cent to 35.90p at the time of writing.

The outlook: Whilst this share price will not be recovering to its lifetime high anytime soon, it does have potential to reach a much better position that it currently sits at which seems underpriced. Certainly it could be worth a punt.

The UK based bank will look to the vaccine and NHS rollout to help get business and borrowing back to normal however will also rely on swift recovery of coronavirus bounce back loans. The loans are government secured so ultimately shouldn’t affect banks too widely. The medium to long term has potential for the bank as it begins to recover from last week.

In an era of intensified vaccine development, it would only make sense for vaccine production related stocks to also intensify and surge in value quickly as they receive an injection of pace. However this hasn’t been the case thus far for many stocks. One such potentially undervalued stock is that of British based pharmaceutical giant, GSK. 

Britain in its revitalised efforts in the battle against Covid-19 has become the first country in the world to administer doses of a vaccine against the virus. It’s research institutions are amongst the best in the world and have worked in close partnership with corporate partners such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca in order to advance health solutions across the globe. 

Curious then that powerhouse GSK has fallen behind in its race to become the leading manufacturer whilst companies such as German based BioNTech and American multinational Pfizer race ahead. One can only wonder what the future holds for the gigantic and coveted Brentford based GSK and its market cap. 

The vaccine is likely to be needed for some time to come. A couple doses this year does not equate to lifetime immunity. The race to become the dominant player is almost over. But the battle to stay at the top is a long term slog. GSK are still developing their vaccine and with such rich history in Pharma, perhaps this stock is one to watch closely.

At the time of writing, GlaxoSmithKline Plc is listed on the FTSE at 1,413p well below its pre covid 52week high of 1,777p. This could have been higher had the company been more successful at this point in rolling out its vaccine which it is developing in partnership with French rival, Sanofi. However they have decided to delay release until later next year. This was after the company saw its results as effective in 18-49 year olds in generating an immune response but insufficient in older age groups.

The UK holds an order of 60million doses when the vaccine is ready to go. Certainly there is potential there for this stock to gain value once the company has sorts its research, and it is worth noting they haven’t let us down much in that field over the years.

They innovated. They got investment. They waited. They were rewarded. Take a bow Airbnb. The San Francisco based company founded in 2008 finally went public today to set records with a soaring share price.

Airbnb (ABNB) initially set a share price of $68 to reach first-day trading at $158. But like Doordash’s IPO, this should not come as a massive surprise. There was immense hope around the company coupled with a yearning for big IPOs to come to the street as the year ends.

Airbnb has waited patiently to reach this stage. One of the first notable companies of the share economy yet one of the last to go public. It’s no wonder that the price soared as investors just couldn’t contain their excitement any longer.

But what of the financials? The company has taken a hit this year. Coronavirus has hampered sales. However investors are understanding. The outlook looks good. 2019 saw a profitable year and that’s what the focus should be on as the world and Airbnb resume normal service.

Excitement is understandable and perhaps the share price is justified considering this is a strong company that has always played the game well. More interestingly, where does this put the competition. At around a $100billion valuation today, this immediately put the San Fran based tech company ahead of Booking.com’s Booking Holding Inc valued at approx $86billion and established with a suite of companies under the umbrella including the gigantic American site, Priceline.com. Now let’s look at the revenue in 2019:

Booking Holding: $15billion

Airbnb: $4.7billion

No one is disputing the potential of Airbnb, even if this was another dot com boom, the company has strong fundamentals that will be difficult to argue against. However, perhaps the real story here is the undervalued price of its competitors that aren’t putting as many foots wrong.