Verifone Crashes, While Other Stocks Eke Out Gains

The PYMNTS Stock Index saw a few mid-sized percentage gains, which may have cheered investors over the long holiday weekend. The smaller the stock, however, the more outsized the percentage gains on relatively little news. Among the firms that saw upward trends was Planet Payment, which was up roughly 5.6 percent on news last week, at the end of the month, that the firm is linking up with Network International via an agreement with Ahli United Bank, which operates out of Bahrain.

That agreement builds on an existing relationship between Planet Payment and Network International, which is a payments solution provider serving the EMEA.

Everi Holdings and WEX were up 5.2 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, with no real news on either front. Though it should be noted that, in the case of WEX, the firm got an upgrade to “strong buy” via Zacks Investment Research, and that follows on the heels of the announcement earlier in August that it is extending its agreement with Helloworld Group in order to offer a virtual payments solution.

The biggest mover — and the biggest news in the payments space, of course — belonged to a heady decliner. Verifone saw a tough earnings report last week, leading to the loss. The stock was off 15 percent on the week, as the payments firm — amid declines in the top line and guidance that clearly disappointed investors — saw macro-concerns hit the firm abroad, while the EMV transition appears to be middling at best.

Ingenico slipped a little less than 5 percent, looking ahead into earnings, but as of this writing, it is the actuality that has sent the stock plummeting, as much as double-digit percentages, with results that disappointed The Street and that also carried the weight of a macro-influenced slowdown in Brazil and a rough patch in the United States.