Payments Stocks See Big Boost Despite Prepaid’s Fall

The payments industry saw growth of 1.36 percent on the stock market this week, as the POS equipment/software, network and acquirer/processor industries all saw strong performances.

One week after finishing as our worst performer, VeriFone rebounded in a big way, growing 10.89 percent to $21.07 per share. The POS equipment provider saw the jump in value following its announcement of a major two-year contract with ChinaPnR which will see it manage up to 100,00 payments devices.

Fellow POS provider Ingenico finished with our second strongest week, jumping 9.78 percent to reach $49.51. The France-based company announced agreements with Sterling Payment Technology and Italian lottery operator Lottomatica.

Despite more modest gains from NCR Corporation and modest losses from MICROS Systems and USA Technologies, the POS equipment industry gained 4.38 percent as a whole.

The networks had the second best performance of any industry, growing 1.70 percent. MasterCard had the strongest week, jumping 2.56 percent to hit $535.33 while Visa followed suit, growing 1.99 percent to $167.23. Discover now sits at $43.92 thanks to a jump of 1.34 percent, while American Express saw the smallest growth, gaining 0.76 percent to reach $67.75.

The prepaid industry had the biggest loss of any industry subset but also welcomed its newest member in Blackhawk Network Holdings, which completed its initial public offering last Sunday. Originally valued at a market cap of $1.35 billion and share price of $26.40, the prepaid player now sits at $23.73 for a loss of -8.77 percent. Fellow prepaid players Green Dot and Netspend Holdings grew 2.78 percent and 0.06 percent, respectively, but the subset as a whole -0.79 percent.

TSYS finished with the second-worst performance of the week, falling -2.96 percent to $23.24. The company has still gained 8.5 percent in value in year-to-date earnings.