Bolstered by a strong performance from the prepaid industry and modest gains by the four major U.S. networks, the payments industry saw a 0.63 percent gain on the stock market this week, making for a two-week upward trend.
The prepaid industry grew 3.94 percent, with Green Dot jumping 6.15 percent to $12.43 a share to finish as payments second-biggest winner of the week. The company continues to see turbulent stock results after losing over half of its value in July. Fellow prepaid company NetSpend Holdings Inc. also had a strong week, gaining 4.02 percent to rise to $11.65.
USA Technologies saw the biggest gain in our index, jumping 11.94 percent to $1.78 a share. As an industry, though, POS Equipment/Software companies saw a net loss of -0.33 percent, due in part to a poor performance by VeriFone Systems.
Each of the four major U.S. networks saw small gains this week, led by MasterCard, which closed on Friday at $488.68 for a 1.80 percent increase. Visa posted similar results, jumping 1.67 percent to $149.71. Discover and American Express posted more modest gains of 0.65 percent to rise to $41.61, and 0.38 percent to finish at $55.90, respectively.
MoneyGram International was the biggest loser on the week, falling -3.92 percent to $12.01 per share. The remittance company has lost around a third of its value over the past year.
