Wise (LSE:WISE) is a growth stock that has been on quite some journey in 2026. After starting the year at 891p, it zoomed to almost 1,100p by April, before plummeting to 754p on 1 June.
Now? It’s back at 937p, a 25% jump from its June low!
According to broker JP Morgan Cazenove though, all of these numbers could be in the rear-view mirror by this time next year. Because earlier this month it gave the stock a new, higher price target of 1,320p.
Note that this is above the average target among analysts, which currently stands at 1,236p. So the takeaway here is that most analyst teams tracking Wise think it can deliver a gain of between 31% and 41% by July 2027.
Why are they overwhelmingly bullish?
Money without borders
Wise’s company motto is “money without borders“. In other words, people and businesses should be able to transfer money quickly and cheaply, without being stung by opaque fees and inflated exchange rates.
In Q4 FY26, the firm completed 75% of payments inside 20 seconds, while lowering the average cross-border take rate from 0.58% to 0.52% across the year. Wise continuously reinvests profits into lowering fees for customers and adding new features.
Admittedly, this business model appears counterintuitive. Shouldn’t Wise ideally be raising the take rate to maximise profits for shareholders? After all, that’s what most companies do (they flex their pricing power muscles).
I recently had one thank me for being a loyal customer for over six years, before ‘rewarding’ me with a 24% price hike. Not exactly a customer-centric approach! Needless to say, I went elsewhere.
No, what Wise is pursuing is a strategy called ‘Scale Economies Shared’ (a phrase coined by retired fund manager Nick Sleep). As it scales, Wise is sharing efficiencies with customers, which is attracting more of them in a virtuous circle.
Examples of companies that have succeeded using this model include Costco, Amazon, Shopify, and insurance giant GEICO (via Berkshire Hathaway).
Most companies pursue scale efficiencies, but few share them. It’s the sharing that makes the model so powerful. But in the centre of the model is a paradox: the company grows through giving more back.
Nick Sleep, Nomad Investment Partnership, 2004.
Structural cost advantage
In FY26, Wise moved $243bn across borders, a 31% year-on-year increase. But it has identified a $43trn market opportunity, with businesses and large enterprises (particularly banks) representing $39trn of that total.
In April, it signed up South Africa’s Capitec, adding to other recent customer wins, including UniCredit, Raiffeisen, and MBSB Bank (an Islamic lender in Malaysia).
This is where the massive opportunity lies, and why most analysts are bullish. They see Wise holding a structural cost advantage over traditional banks and money-transfer peers like Remitly.
That said, the FinTech may never achieve its long-term potential due to regulatory hurdles, compliance failures, and/or increasing adoption of stablecoins. But if it does, the reward could be very large, which is why I have it in both my SIPP and Stocks and Shares ISA.
Currently, the stock is trading at 19 times next year’s forecast earnings. At this price, I think Wise is worth considering buying to hold long term.
Should you invest £5,000 in Wise Plc right now?
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Ben McPoland owns shares in Shopify and Wise.
