NetSpend Stock Soars As VeriFone’s Value Plummets

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NetSpend Holdings and VeriFone saw dramatic changes in their stock value this week in what a turbulent five days for payments on the stock market.

Buoyed by its acquisition by TSYS, NetSpend stock rose 30.2 percent on the week, reaching $15.95, or just short of it’s $15.98 all-time high. TSYS purchased NetSpend for $1.4 billion on Wednesday, as the processor looks to gain a foothold in the growing prepaid industry.

Thanks to a more modest positive performance by Green Dot – a 2.30 percent jump to reach $14.66 – the prepaid industry gained 17.82 percent on the week.

The network industry also finished in the black this week, growing 0.72 percent thanks to modest gains by American Express, Visa and MasterCard, and modest losses by Discover.

Despite the results from the prepaid and network segments, though, payments as a whole dropped -0.24 percent thanks to major losses in the POS equipment/software industry and modest setbacks from remittance companies and acquirer/processors.

VeriFone was far and away the biggest loser on the week, dropping losing a whopping -42.18 percent of its value and falling to just 18.92 after reaching an all-time high on $55.89 just under a year ago. The company’s fall came after it dramatically slashed its first quarter estimates, citing delayed projects and weak environments in Europe and South America.

Three more POS companies: MICROS Systems, Ingenico and NCR Corporation also finished in the bottom five on our index this week, with USA Technologies providing the only sub-industry positive. Overall, the POS equipment/software space lost -13.31 percent.