- Payment processing corporations Visa and Mastercard gained popularity in Q3
- NVIDIA Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co also made it onto ‘top risers’ list
- Number of investors holding NVIDIA overtook Alphabet, signaling change of the guard in big tech
Wednesday, 11 October 2023: Australian retail investors began backing payment processing and service corporations in Q3 while continuing to support semiconductor and big tech stocks, according to the latest quarterly stocks data from trading and investing platform eToro.
eToro looked at which companies saw the biggest proportionate change in Aussie holders at the end of Q3 versus the end of Q2 (table 1), while also looking at the 10 most widely held stocks on the platform in Australia (table 2).
The list of most widely held stocks was led by Tesla and Apple, both of which have seen massive share price gains this year, albeit with a far less impressive Q3. Others in this list include Meta and NVIDIA, with the latter now the seventh most held stock on the eToro platform, overtaking tech stalwart Alphabet.
Amongst the 10 ‘biggest risers’ list, NVIDIA Corporation features once again, with a 13 per cent jump in holders, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co also rose in popularity (+14 per cent). The biggest riser for Q3 was McDonald’s, with a 15 per cent increase in holders.
A prominent trend on this list, however, is the surge in popularity of payment companies. Mastercard, the second-largest payment-processing corporation worldwide, saw a 7 per cent jump in holders, while Visa, the world’s second-largest card payment organisation, saw a 6 per cent increase in holders in Q3.
Commenting on the data, eToro Global Market Analyst Josh Gilbert, said: “ It’s no surprise to see retail investors backing semiconductor stocks given the transformational growth around AI in 2023. It is one of the biggest technology shifts we have seen for decades with use cases exploding and therefore, investors want to own shares in the companies set to benefit. Nvidia has been the name taking the headlines with its huge gains YTD, but investors are also finding opportunities in companies such as TSMC and AMD.”
At the other end of the spectrum, it was a mixed bag in terms of the stocks that saw the biggest proportional fall in users on the platform. Bed Bath and Beyond and Meituan Class B both saw the biggest drop off in holders, with a 10 per cent quarterly decrease. Meanwhile, social media platform Snapchat (-7 per cent) and Jaguar Health (-6 per cent) also saw a significant fall in holders.
Gilbert adds: “The last quarter has seen us reach what is likely to be the peak of the global interest rate cycle, so financial services firms are rising in popularity amongst investors once again. This reflects the findings in our global Retail Investor Beat survey, which indicated that 15% of Australian investors are likely to increase their investment in financial services before the end of the year. Clearly, investors are focused on rate cuts, building exposure to financial services in the form of Mastercard and Visa – and consumer discretionary in Nike and McDonalds. Mcdonald’s also has a huge exposure to real estate with its 41,000 locations, which has proven to be appealing to investors.”
Table 1: Shows which stocks have seen the biggest proportional increase and decrease in holders on the eToro platform quarter on quarter in Australia
| Biggest risers among eToro’s Aussie investors | Biggest fallers among eToro’s Aussie investors | |||
| Rank | Company | Increase in holders QoQ | Company | Decrease in holders QoQ |
| 1 | McDonald’s | 15% | Bed Bath and Beyond Inc | -10% |
| 2 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd – ADR | 14% | Meituan Class B | -10% |
| 3 | NVIDIA Corporation | 13% | Snapchat Inc | -7% |
| 4 | Coca-Cola | 10% | Jaguar Health Inc | -6% |
| 5 | NIKE | 10% | Beyond Meat Inc. | -6% |
| 6 | Berkshire Hathaway Inc | 9% | Cenntro Electric Group Limited | -6% |
| 7 | Advanced Micro Devices Inc | 8% | Johnson & Johnson | -5% |
| 8 | Apple | 7% | Warner Bros Discovery Inc | -5% |
| 9 | Mastercard | 7% | GameStop Corp. | -4% |
| 10 | Visa | 6% | Boeing | -4% |
Table 2: Shows which stocks are most widely held by eToro users in Australia and their position last quarter
| Company | Ranking at end of Q3 | Ranking at end of Q2 |
| Tesla Motors | 1 | 1 |
| Apple | 2 | 2 |
| Amazon.com Inc | 3 | 3 |
| Nio Inc.-ADR | 4 | 4 |
| Microsoft | 5 | 5 |
| Meta Platforms Inc | 6 | 6 |
| NVIDIA Corporation | 7 | 8 |
| Alphabet | 8 | 7 |
| GameStop Corp. | 9 | 9 |
| Alibaba-ADR | 10 | 10 |
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