Payments Stocks Roar Ahead in Strong Week

Stocks across the payments realm roared ahead this past week, with several names reporting double-digit percentage gains. Not a bad showing, though the gains could be said to come less from sanguine news on a company-by-company basis and more likely stemming from a continuing stock rally, a rising tide that lifted some of even the smallest boats.

The most visible gains, on a percentage basis, occurred in names such as Everi Holdings, which gained 12 percent off a small base, as PYMNTS has noted before, which means that even the smallest absolute movements, in terms of pennies, have an outsized impact.

And at this writing, overall the markets are mixed. Perhaps that counts as a breather in today’s supercharged stock market. And as measured by the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Market, a few basis points down is not illustrative of sentiment either way.

Mitek Systems was just behind Everi, with an 11 percent gain for the week. The latest news surrounding the company, coming at the beginning of the month, centered around an as-yet-unnamed European online banking platform adopting the Mitek Verify platform across its own offerings. Diebold followed with a slightly less than 11 percent rally. Moneygram, similarly, nearly gained 11 percent.

It says a lot about the strength of the week when the “top five” losers actually sport several gains, although relatively small ones, and only one firm, which was Fidelity National Information Services, eked out a small loss and was in effect basically flat.