Banking, finance, and taxes

Deutsche Bank Says Buy 3 Credit Card and Payment Processor Stocks Now

Lee Jackson

Published: September 17, 2018 9:58 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 5:49 pm

Think about it for a moment. How often do you actually pay for products and services with cash? If the answer is not very much, then you are like millions of others that use credit and debit cards, and the payment processors to move funds around. While the technology has grown exponentially in the past 20 years, most of the top companies continue to work and focus on security measures, due to the huge increase in customer usage.

In a series of new reports, Deutsche Bank highlights three top companies that are leaders in the field. These stocks are rated Buy and make good sense for investors looking to add payment services to their portfolios.

Mastercard

This continues to be one of the top credit card plays in the world. Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is a global payments provider that operates one of the largest payment processing networks, connecting billions of consumers, millions of merchants, and thousands of financial institutions in more than 210 countries. Its brands include Mastercard, Maestro and Cirrus.

The company also provides value-enhancing offerings such as loyalty and rewards programs, information services and consulting. According to Nilson estimates, Mastercard is the third-largest global credit and debit network, as measured by volume. The analysts’ report noted this:

We hosted a fireside chat with Michael Miebach, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of MA, at our annual DB Tech Conference discussing the company’s strategic vision across product lines and verticals. Miebach highlighted the 2x volume lift from converting Maestro debit cards to Mastercard debit, targeting the affluent space (70% higher net revs than overall consumer portfolio), penetrating the $120 trillion business-to-business opportunity, expanding Value Added Services, taking share from domestic networks, and the Vocalink sales strategy. We walked away confident that the company has enough white space ahead and is forging the path to sustain top-line growth in excess of low double digits for years to come.

Shareholders receive a 0.46% dividend. The Deutsche Bank price target for the stock is $221, but the Wall Street consensus target is $229.16. The shares traded at $217.75 Monday morning.

PayPal

This stock has long been a Deutsche Bank and Wall Street favorite. PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) is a global, technology-driven payment platform with greater than 210 million direct customer relationships in more than 200 countries. PayPal empowers a streamlined digital and mobile payment experience in-browser, on mobile devices and in-app. It is accepted at more than 75% of the largest 100 internet retailers.

PayPal enables businesses of various sizes to accept payments from merchant websites, mobile devices and applications, as well as at offline retail locations through a range of payment solutions across company’s payments platform, including PayPal, PayPal Credit, Venmo and Braintree products.

The analysts discussed the progress at the company:

The company is still ramping Venmo monetization, which has developed slower than we had previously anticipated and is now expected to gradually flow through the model (no step-function expected). Importantly, PayPal’s 3 to 5year target of 20% EPS growth and free-cash-flow yield of +20% uniquely position it to be a leading consolidator in the industry while still returning cash to shareholders (+$3 billion returned in last 12 months). While material changes in the model are approaching — US consumer credit portfolio comes off next quarter and eBay contract expiring mid-2020 — we believe the company has sufficient levers to deliver towards its 3-5 year target of 17-18% revenue growth.

Deutsche Bank has a $98 price objective, and the consensus target is $96.58. Shares traded at $90.70.

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Visa

This top credit card issuer is becoming a huge leader in digital pay. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) operates the world’s largest retail electronic payments network. The company provides processing services and payment product platforms, including consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, that are offered under Visa and related brands. According to Nilson estimates, the company is the largest global credit network (as measured by volume) and the second largest global debit network.

Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products.

Visa remains very well liked across Wall Street as 77.9% of investment managers own shares. The analysts said this:

An overall improvement in the global macro environment has helped push volume growth towards mid-teens while cross-border has remained in 9-10% growth year-to-date (watching currency movements for any impacts). Investments in emerging areas like push payments (e.g., Visa Direct), B2B, and contactless provide longer-term levers for sustainable growth.

Shareholders receive a 0.57% dividend. The $160 Deutsche Bank price target compares with the $160.09 consensus target and the recent price of $147.10.

These top stocks have been on a roll, so it may make sense to buy partial positions and see how the rest of the quarter goes. The good news is that these three sector leaders are very hard to challenge.