Barclays Initiates Coverage Of Payments Sector, Names PayPal As Top Pick

Barclays initiated coverage of 20 stocks in the rapidly evolving payments industry, with PayPal leading as the firm's top pick.

Investors are familiar with payments as an investable, evolutionary story, but often see tech-enabled or software embedded payments as a new high-growth channel, analyst Ramsay El-Assal said in a note. 

Tech enablement is fundamentally transforming the fabric of payments itself, the analyst said. (See his track record here.)

“For us, tech-enabled is a key factor in stock selection, as it should drive long-term growth acceleration, multiple expansion and thus overall returns."

The Ratings

• Alliance Data Systems Corporation ADS initiated with an Overweight rating and $254 price target.
• Automatic Data Processing ADP initiated with an Overweight rating and $168 price target
• Cardtronics plc CATM initiated with an Overweight rating and $41 price target.
• EVO Payments Inc EVOP initiated with an Equal-weight rating and $29 price target.
• Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc FIS initiated with an Overweight rating and $129 price target.
• First Data Corp FDC initiated with an Overweight rating and $24 price target.
• Fiserv Inc FISV initiated with an Overweight rating and $95 price target.
• FleetCor Technologies, Inc. FLT initiated with an Overweight and $245 price target. 
• Global Payments Inc GPN initiated with an Overweight rating and $136 price target.
• Green Dot Corporation GDOT initiated with an Overweight rating and $103 price target.
• MasterCard Inc MA initiated with an Overweight rating and a $240 price target.
• MoneyGram International Inc MGI initiated with an Underweight rating and $2 price target.
• Paychex, Inc. PAYX initiated with an Equal-weight rating and $70 price target.
• PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL initiated with an Overweight rating and $110 price target.
• Square Inc SQ initiated with an Overweight rating and $96 price target.
• Total System Services, Inc. TSS initiated with an Overweight rating and $113 price target.
• Visa Inc V initiated with an Overweight rating and $170 price target.
• The Western Union Company WU initiated with an Underweight rating and $18 price target.
• WEX Inc WEX initiated with an Overweight rating and $211 price target.
• Worldpay Inc WP initiated with an Overweight rating and $108 price target.

Related Links:

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