Post-Election, Payments Stocks Mixed, Moneygram Gains

In the wake of a stunning election sweep by the Republicans, from the presidency to the halls of Congress (and down the ballot in many places), stocks had been widely expected to sink. But they did not. It was a week of surprises, to put it mildly. So it’s only a bit tongue-in-cheek to state that nobody should have been surprised that they were surprised. Many names hit new highs, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record of above 18,800 points.

In the payments space, gains outweighed losses even as earnings season continued to move onward. The top performer of the week was MoneyGram, which tacked on impressive gains of nearly 17 percent. That follows strong earnings results earlier in the month, and it also could be the case that investors swept shares ahead in the general uptrend.

Everi Financial Holdings shares also saw gains, outsized though they may seem on a small cap stock, and net losses were 12 cents a share, adjusted for items. The payments business related to gaming saw sales up 7 percent year over year. Discover Financial Services was up 10 percent on the week as well, with no company-specific news in the past week. USA Technologies lost 5.7 percent in the wake of earnings mid-week that matched expectations on the top and bottom lines, where adjusted losses came in at $0.03 a share and revenues at $21.6 million. Management, however, seemed sanguine on the conference call for increased uptake of mobile payments across self-serve retail and also said it is on track for its long-term performance goals of $100 million in annual revenue run rates.