MoneyGram’s Takeout Bids Dominate Payments Stocks

Several names in the payments industry roared ahead, with company-specific news focused on game-changing mergers and acquisitions or earnings.

The big news, of course, came from MoneyGram, where Ant Financial’s proposed takeover of the company has a rival bid from Euronet Worldwide. The latter company bid roughly $1 billion for MoneyGram, and shares of MoneyGram soared 29 percent on the week. The stock in fact traded through the offer price given at the end of the week to as much as $16.40. Typically, when common stock trades above an offer price, traders are looking for a bidding war to emerge, which would push shares higher still, giving some more profits to those who are buying high and think they will be able to sell higher.

Right on the heels of MoneyGram, in terms of percentage changes in shares, came Everi Holding’s 29 percent gain on the week, as stock was at a 14-month high to as much as $4.20. The cash services firm, which focuses on casinos, said that revenues for the fourth quarter were up higher than expected on game business sales. The Street reacted well to the news, with several upgrades pushing the stock higher and the three sell-side houses, all at buy or similar ratings, covering the name boosted their price targets as well. Similarly, in the land of upgrades, Green Dot got an upgrade to “buy” from SunTrust, based in part on last month’s Street-beating earnings report, whereas previously the rating had been “hold.” Green Dot shares were up 10 percent on the week.

Looking toward declining issues, they seemed modest in comparison with the growth just mentioned. Capital One Financial Corp. shares were down 3 percent. The company said at mid-week that its February domestic credit card net charge-off rate was 5.09 percent and higher than the 4.9 percent seen in January. The company also said, among other statistics, that its 30-day delinquency rate for domestic credit cards was 4.04 percent at the end of the month.