NCR, USAT Lead Payments Stocks In Quiet Week

The payments industry largely broke even on the stock market last week, as the industry as a whole gained just 0.04 percent. A strong performance by the POS equipment industry was largely mitigated by slight losses across most other payments subsets.

NCR Corporation finished with the strongest showing of the week, gaining 5.5 percent to reach a price of $33.44 per share. On Friday, Goldman Sachs reiterated its “hold” rating on NCR shares.

Fellow POS equipment/software provider USA Technologies finished with the second-strongest performance on the week, closely trailing NCR with gains of 5.17 percent. The company ended the week on May 31 at a $1.82.

Ingenico finished as the third POS equipment player to finish in the black, gaining 1.50 percent. VeriFone and MICROS were less fortunate, dropping -0.47 percent and -1.21 percent, respectively. Still, the POS equipment industry gained 2.09 percent overall.

Heartland Payment Systems rounded out the top three earners, and saw a jump of 2.66 percent, ending the week at $32.13. Heartland’s stock value has increased by over 10 percent since the start of 2013.

Thanks to modest down weeks from Western Union and MoneyGram alike, the remittance industry suffered the worst performance of the week, losing -0.39 percent on the whole. Western Union dropped -0.43 percent to hit $16.30, while MoneyGram fell -010 percent to $19.85.

The weakest individual performer was Euronet Worldwide, dropping -3.11 percent to finish at $30.61. The company’s value has largely stabilized between $30 and $32.50 a share after a significant bump in April following new Q2 estimates.