This Week’s Hyper Stocks Watchlist

Airbnb didn’t create the “vacation rental by owner” business model, but they have arguably been the most successful at making it viral and accessible to everyone. Two decades after launch, Airbnb is now a global name that generates more billions in annual revenue.

We witnessed Airbnb’s IPO in 2020, when the stock rallied from lows of $120 to highs of $220 in just two months after going public, investors who bought at those highs are still down on their position. But a change of the tide may be happening as Airbnb positions itself as a stronger business with improving fundamentals and free cash flow.

Is Airbnb Stock a Buy?

This isn’t the first time Airbnb posts a strong earnings gap up. The stock rallied following the last earnings report in August, when they posted 17.87% YoY revenue growth. And in this most recent quarter, Airbnb posted 16.54% YoY growth. More importantly, net income grew 27% to $816 million.

We’re also seeing stronger demand across the platform. Nights and seats booked increased 16%, while gross booking value grew 21% to $27.7 billion. This tells us that Airbnb’s growth isn’t simply coming from higher prices. More people are actually booking through the platform.

At a market cap of approximately $113 billion, however, Airbnb isn’t exactly cheap. Here are some ratios we’re looking at:

Price to Earnings: 35x. Investors are paying a premium for Airbnb’s profitability and expected earnings growth.

Price to Sales: 8x. For every dollar in annual revenue, investors are paying approximately $8 in market value.

Price to Free Cash Flow: 23x. This is particularly important because Airbnb generated approximately $4.9 billion in free cash flow over the last twelve months.

The last metric is particularly important because it proves the very business model Airbnb wants to be is finally working. Unlike traditional hotels, the company’s asset light approach is meant to earn them higher margins and reduce overhead costs, thus increasing free cash flow. That free cash flow can be deployed for new business moves, or returned to investors through dividends and buybacks. Airbnb is doing the latter.

Airbnb authorized a $12 billion share buyback program, which equals about 10% of their current market cap. If the full amount does get approved, that would reduce their total share count and give investors a larger stake in the company.

Airbnb in 2027 & The Trade Approach

As mentioned earlier, Airbnb is not cheap by traditional metrics at this point, but there’s enough activity in the industry + it’s one of the only names doing what they’re doing, which makes them a top pick for those who want exposure to the travel industry. As investors why away from AI and tech, real life experience providers are winning, just look at the bounce back in airline and cruise stocks.

Airbnb falls somewhere between a turnaround stock and a growth stock. The turnaround is more about investor sentiment (after being beaten down from IPO highs), and the growth comes from their consistent YoY revenue gains and improving fundamentals. The trade approach we’re taking at Hyper Stocks is the “Power Earnings Gap” strategy, which focuses on companies that post 5%+ gap up day + the earnings to back it up. The trade “fails” if Airbnb doesn’t hold its earnings gap up.

The semiconductor and memory industry sell off has been brutal. Intel has crashed 65% from its six month highs, AMD nearly down 40% in just one month, and even Nvidia trading 25% below last month’s highs.

Through this industry wide correction, there are opportunities starting to look attractive. One of those is Taiwan Semiconductor, arguably the most important company to the entire AI chip industry. If you’ve been a member with us, you’re familiar with this name as we’ve covered it multiple times, and now that the stock has corrected nearly 30% from its highs, it’s time to cover it for an opportunity again.

TSMC and What the Company Does

The company dominates the world's most advanced logic chip manufacturing market, making it extraordinarily difficult to replace in the global technology supply chain.

But TSMC's reach extends far beyond AI. Its customers also include Apple, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and other major semiconductor designers whose products power smartphones, personal computers, cloud infrastructure, and countless electronic devices. Why is this key right now? Because investors are shying away from the AI trade in fears that a Democratic midterm win will slowdown the buildout…and while TSMC may be impacted, its exposure beyond AI can alleviate some of those fears, and we believe it assigns it a higher premium.

TSMC’s Business Performance & 2027 Objectives

There’s a massive disconnect between TSMC’s stock performance over the past month and its earnings performance. Total revenue grew at a pace of 41% YoY to $46.88 billion in Q3. And net income hit $23.84, growing a massive 57.7% YoY. The company’s balance sheet sits at $221.28 billion in positive equity, and free cash flow has enormously compounded from $12 billion in 2023 to just under $50 billion as of this latest report.

TSMC has two main business opportunities & objectives in 2027

• Advanced manufacturing and the 2nm transition: semiconductor manufacturing is requiring more precision and efficiency, so companies are upgrading their equipment to fit those needs. TSMC’s 2nm transition already started showing results, growing to 8% of wafer revenue in Q3 2026 vs 3% the previous quarter.
• AI infrastructure and advanced packaging: High performance computing, which includes AI and other demanding computing applications, represented 68% of TSMC's revenue during Q3, compared with 57% a year earlier.

Moreover, TSMC plays a vital role in the memory game, helping companies like Micron and SK Hynix integrate advanced processors with memory components.

Risks & CapEx

The geopolitical risks are undeniable, which is the main headwind and “black swan” event that could challenge the TSMC trade. The company is based out of Taiwan, and China’s threat is looming…however they are building fabs in the U.S., which can help offset the geopolitical threat. That itself is extremely costly though, which has raised the company’s CapEx to $60-64 billion in 2026.