Network, Remittance Players Bolster Payments Stocks

The payments industry saw the total value of its stocks rise 2.47 percent this week among strong performances by the network and remittance subsets and universal gains across all payments sub-industries.

The four major U.S. payments networks all saw gains in excess of 3 percent as the industry as a whole jumped 4.38 percent. MasterCard led the way with a 5.34 percent boost, growing to $584.78. Discover and American Express posted nearly identical gains of 4.62 and 4.63 percent, to land at a respective $47.70 and $73.32. And Visa did not finish far behind, growing 3.45 percent to reach $184.57.

The remittance industry saw similar success, with MoneyGram International finishing with the weeks’ second-best performance overall, jumping 6.39 percent to reach $20.11. Western Union also performed well, finishing the week at $16.65 for a 4.13 percent boost.

The biggest individual winner on the week was Official Payments Holdings Inc, which grew 9.35 percent to hit $6.54 per share. NCR Corporation finished with gains of 5.60 percent to round out the top three.

While no segment within the payments industry finished in the red this week, seven companies did finish with down numbers. MICROS and TSYS each dropped in value by under -0.20 percent, while Bottomline Technologies, Global Cash Access Holdings and VeriFone each lost between -2.46 and -2.69 percent in value. Net 1 UEPS fell -4.49 percent as our second-worst performer, but USA Technologies finished with the worst week by far, losing -14.09 percent to hit just $1.89.