Apple Pay Will Pave the Way For Long-Term Gains at Verifone
On Monday, Verifone reports fourth quarter earnings. Ahead of the print, it’s worth taking a look at the company, as it exemplifies just how vast the opportunities are in the payment technology space. When you take new technologies like Apple Pay and put them together with all of these security breaches, it’s pretty clear that we’re in the beginning of a sweeping domestic and international upgrade cycle for point of sale systems. The biggest beneficiary of this transformation is market leader Verifone. The company accounts for five of the eight million payment terminals in the U.S. and four million overseas. They also have all the latest technology; Verifone makes point of sale terminals that are compatible with near field communications—the touch-less technology behind Apple Pay—as well as what’s known as EMV, which is the acronym for credit cards that contain a microchip, which prevents counterfeiters from duplicating your card. Right now, 30% of terminals in this country are EMV compatible, but that number is set to grow to 70% by 2016 as retailers rush to protect themselves against future breaches. Verifone is the biggest beneficiary of this shift, making it a stealth technology play for 2015 and beyond.
