Green Dot, Acquirers Boost Payments Stocks

Thanks to strong performances by the prepaid and acquirer/processor industries, payments as a whole gained a modest 0.31 percent on the stock market this week among pedestrian showings from many other subsets.

The prepaid industry led the way with gains of 1.10 percent, led by a boost in value of 3.36 percent by Green Dot. The company’s stock now sits at $15.69 and has grown almost 25 percent over the past three months, as it continues its climb back from a disastrous drop in July of 2012. Fellow prepaid company NetSpend Holdings saw a more modest gain of 0.13 percent, ending the week at $15.91 as it’s remained largely static over the past month.

The biggest individual winner in our index this week was Euronet Worldwide, which gained 5.64 percent to hit $25.66 as it continues its strong yearly performance. VeriFone Systems rounded out the top three with a gain of 2.56 percent to reach $21.24, while MoneyGram International and MICROS were the only other two companies to finish with growth of over 2 percent.

While none in the network industry has outstanding weeks, three of the four companies did enough on the stock market to see a subset-wide improvement of 0.49 percent. Discover led the way with a jump of 1.95 percent to reach an even $45.00. Visa finished second with a jump of 0.97 percent to reach $160.09, while American Express saw more modest gains of 0.20 percent. MasterCard served as the loan network to finish in the red, dropping -0.36 percent to hit $517.50.

Global Cash Access Holdings saw the biggest loss on the week, dropping -5.76 percent to fall to $7.03. NCR Corporation and Cardtronics were the second and third-worst performer son the week, respectively, although the losses suffered by both companies were quite modest.