How to buy Poste Italiane stocks in 2024

1. eToro

eToro is one of the most prominent social investment networks, with a mission to improve investors' knowledge and activity regarding finance. Since its inception in 2007, eToro has become the premier investment platform for novice and experienced traders, with a user base of over 17 million. You can read our full eToro review here.

Security and Privacy

When choosing an investment platform, security is among the biggest factors to consider. Since eToro is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), you can be assured that your funds and personal details are secure. Furthermore, eToro SSL encrypts all submissions to safeguard against hackers trying to intercept confidential information. Finally, the platform has two-factor authentication (2FA) to ensure the users’ accounts are safe.

Fees & Features

Both inexperienced and seasoned investors can take advantage of eToro's extensive library of cutting-edge trading methods. For instance, beginners in trading can take advantage of CopyTrading available on eToro as it allows them to mimic the actions of more experienced traders. Those with trading experience will be glad to find that eToro provides access to many markets, such as stocks, currencies, and cryptocurrency, all from one platform. Also, eToro is a commission-free service. However, the platform charges a monthly fee of £10 for inactivity to promote active trades on the platform.

Pros

• Copy trading feature
• SSL encryption to protect users' information
• Trading is commission-free

Cons

• Limited customer service

2. Capital.com

Capital.com, which originated in 2016, is an excellent multi-asset broker. With over 5 million users, it has established itself as a low-cost platform with low overnight fees, tight spreads, and 0% commission. You can read our full Capital.com review here.

Security and Privacy

Capital.com is an FCA, CySEC, ASIC, and NBRB-licensed corporation dedicated to providing the most effective trading experience in the world. It shows that users' data is secured and hidden on Capital.com, since the site follows stringent criteria to achieve this goal. Capital.com takes client data security seriously, and one way it does this is by complying with the PCI Data Security Standards.

Fees & Features

Capital.com offers a wide variety of no-cost brokerage services. Its financial policies are transparent. Any fees you incur will be made clear before you pay them. Capital.com's principal costs come from spread charges, which are often low compared to competitors. The broker's mobile trading app features an AI-powered tool that gives clients personalized trading information by employing a detection algorithm. In addition, Capital.com's multilingual customers can get in touch with a representative via email, phone, or live chat.

Pros

• Efficient email and chat support
• MetaTrader integration
• Commission-free trading

Cons

• Majorly restricted to CFDs

3. Skilling

Skilling is a multi-asset broker with significant growth. The broker offers excellent trading conditions regarding platform features and products available to experienced traders. Skilling now provides Forex, CFD, Stock, and cryptocurrency trading six years after its inception to individual investors. You can read our full Skilling review here.

Security and Privacy

When looking for a broker like Skilling, it is essential to check the broker's regulatory standing. Skilling is administered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). In addition, the money that traders deposit into their Skilling accounts is held in a completely independent financial institution. For maximum safety, Skilling only uses top-tier financial institutions for this purpose. Tier 1 capital is the industry benchmark for measuring a bank's soundness.

Fees & Features

Skilling does not charge commissions for trading equities, indices, or cryptocurrencies. The platform charges Spreads which vary based on the share, but are typically very reasonable. Skilling offers two distinct account options for FX and metals CFD trading. The Standard Skill account has significantly larger spreads but no commissions. The Premium account charges commissions on spot metal and FX CFD trades for decreased spreads. Additionally, Skilling provides a demo account, mobile applications, and a trade assistant.

Pros

• Great platform choice
• Demo accounts

Cons

• High Spreads
• Service is unavailable in many countries, including the US and Canada.

Let's begin with a look at the Poste Italiane's history and its business strategy.

Poste Italiane History

Headquartered in Rome, Poste Italiane is more than just the Italian postal services provider. The company employs over 120,000 people and operates 12,765 offices in the country. It ran close to 600 million postal office transactions in 2020 alone and was founded in 1862.

The company is the result of the so-called "postal reform" in Italy and nowadays covers all the Italian territory. It is one of the largest players in Italy's life and the health insurance industry, also providing financial services.

What Is Poste Italiane's Strategy?

Starting as a simple postal services provider, Poste Italiane expanded into areas such as card payments, mobile telecommunication services, and other digital services for the public sector. It even offers investment services through its financial services arm.

How Does Poste Italiane Make Money?

Poste Italiane's business is split into four segments – postal services (i.e., mail, parcels, and distribution), digital and insurance services, and financial services.

The company's name indicates the main business segment – postal services. In this area, Poste Italiane offers services such as express delivery, logistics, or philately. The financial services segment collects savings deposits and promotes loans issued by banks, among others.

Poste Italiane's services are based on its physical network of post offices flanked by a commercial network dealing with business customers. It also participates in third-party networks, offering services via more than 37,000 retail outlets and other commercial partnership agreements.

How Has Poste Italiane Performed in Recent Years?

Poste Italiane stock price went up more than 85% in the last five years. The company's share price reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic and halved in price during the stock market selloff that affected the international equity markets. However, it bounced from the lows and recovered all the losses and some. The year 2021, in particular, saw the Poste Italiane stock price advancing sharply, reaching a new high compared to the pre-COVID period.

Fundamental analysis is essential to consider before buying shares of a company. It offers a glimpse into the past financial performance and provides an educated guess about what might happen in the future regarding the business performance. Because the financial results impact the stock price, interpreting them using fundamental analysis is a critical step in the decision-making process. In this section of the article, we look at Poste Italiane's revenue, earnings-per-share (EPS), dividend yield, price/earnings (PE) ratio, and cash flow.

Poste Italiane's Revenue

Revenue is the top line on the income statement – one of the key financial statements to interpret, offering a clue about a company's profitability. It all starts with revenues, or how much the company brings in from sales over a certain period. In this case, the annual revenue estimate for 2021 is €11.33 billion, and revenues are projected to increase in the years ahead, reaching €12.64 billion by 2024.

Poste Italiane's Earnings-per-Share

Earnings-per-share is one of the most important metrics to measure a company's profitability. The EPS ratio is also called the "bottom line" because it is the last line on the income statement.

As the name suggests, the metric shows how much the company earned per one share. Naturally, the higher the number, the better the stock price as it suggests improved profitability.

The estimates are that Poste Italiane will earn €1.14/share in 2021. By 2022, the EPS is expected to decline to €1.10. However, in the years to follow, the profitability improves, as the EPS is expected to reach €1.44 in 2024.

Poste Italiane's P/E Ratio

One of the key ratios to value a company is the price/earnings ratio or the P/E ratio. The ratio is calculated by dividing the price of one share by the earnings per share. It shows how many euros investors are willing to pay for every euro the company earns in profit annually. Poste Italiane trades at a P/E ratio of 10.04 in 2021, expected to decline gradually over the next three years and settle at 7.96 in 2024.

Poste Italiane's Dividend Yield

Poste Italiane is a dividend-paying company with a dividend yield of 4.35% trailing 12 months and a dividend payout ratio of 44.38%. The dividend yield is also called the dividend/price ratio and is calculated by dividing the dividend by the current stock market price. Some investors prefer dividend-paying companies because of the possibility to reinvest the income and, thus, to compound earnings.

Poste Italiane's Cash Flow

After the company covers all its costs of staying in business, the remaining cash is known as free cash flow. A strong cash flow position suggests that the company has the resources to expand the business in other areas, enter new markets, or launch new products and services. Conversely, a poor cash flow position suggests that the debt level might increase in the future due to the company's need for additional cash. Poste Italiane free cash flow is estimated at €357 million in 2021, €448 million in 2022, and €504 million in 2023.

Why Buy Poste Italiane Stocks?

One of the things to know about Poste Italiane is that management tried to diversify away from the postal services to other activities such as the payments and mobile division. Nowadays, financial services, payments and mobile services, and insurance businesses are responsible for a rising share of revenues. Moreover, investments in the digital infrastructure led to improved customer experience and showed continuous innovation.

Here are a few reasons to buy Poste Italiane stocks:

• Improved revenue mix;
• Strong increase in the payments and mobile segment;
• Constant focus on innovation and improved customer experience.

There are many things to consider before buying Poste Italiane stock, and the most important ones are listed below.

1. Understand the Company

The starting point is to make sure you understand the company. You may start by looking into the business, how it makes money, and what the current market valuation is. Fundamental and technical analysis help form an educated guess about where the price might go next, and you should focus on what you believe to be the intrinsic value of the stock.

2. Understand the Basics of Investing

Investing is not as simple as just buying and waiting, as the markets' volatility often tests the investors’ patience. Therefore, it is imperative to have a good base and be familiar with risk management, money management, how the broker executes the trades, how to diversify an investment portfolio, and others. Also, diversification helps spread the risk. It is a key money management concept, and investors want to have a diversified portfolio with uncorrelated investments.

3. Carefully Choose Your Broker

The brokerage house is your partner in the investing/trading journey. The aim is to be successful, and a good broker should strive to provide the best trading conditions for its clients.

Things like reputation, customer service, costs and charges, ease of deposit, and withdrawal do matter for the trader. But, above all, commissions and orders' execution play an essential role, too. Therefore, you will be responsible for doing due diligence and carefully choosing the best broker for your needs.

4. Decide How Much You Want to Invest

Investing bears risk, so it is never wise to invest money you cannot afford to lose. How much to invest depends on the risk appetite and the risk profile of every individual. Borrowing money to invest in stocks is never a good decision, unlike you know how to use leverage or a margin account, and neither is "betting the farm" on any one stock. Instead, investors are better off risking a percentage of the capital on any given trade (1% or 2% are the norms).

5. Decide on a Goal for Your Investment

People invest for various reasons, such as building a pension fund for retirement, speculating, or simply not wanting to feel left outside of a major bullish cycle. Whatever the reason, defining a goal is an integral part of money management. Also, make sure to lay down what has to happen to give up on your investment. More precisely, what is the risk tolerance level, or the invalidation level, that should make you sell one stock or the other? For this, both technical and fundamental analyses work, depending on your time horizon.

Poste Italiane is a dividend-paying company that diversified its operations in order to reduce the dependency on postal services. As a result, the company's cash flow position is forecast to improve in the following years, and the stock price recovered all of the decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the one that feels ready and confident to invest in Poste Italiane stocks, the first step is to pick a broker that offers Poste Italiane shares. Next, find the stock and shortlist it before placing an order. Trading may take place at the current market price or at a predefined level. In the latter case, the broker offers pending orders and will execute the order only if and when the price reaches the specified price.

For the one that is not confident enough to start trading stocks, perhaps reading other educational materials on our website might help. Investing is full of new terms for the inexperienced trader, and learning is a constant process.