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4 Card Processor Stocks to Watch Amid Rising Cybercrimes in US

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Internet-based crimes or cybercrimes have been on the rise in the United States for quite some time. These crimes often involve fraudsters gaining illegal access to personal and valuable information of customers, which result in customers incurring significant losses.

Compounding the misery is the fact that fraudsters are almost always technologically updated and can take advantage of numerous loopholes prevailing within the nation’s cybersecurity infrastructure. Per Statista, the number of data breaches has substantially soared over the past decade across the United States with the count reaching more than 1000 in 2020 compared to 662 in 2010.

The most sigificant one of late being the ransomware attack of May 2021 on the nation’s leading fuel pipeline — Colonial Pipeline. With significant issues arising from the incident, President Biden inked an executive order encompassing a plethora of measures aimed at upgrading the nation’s cybersecurity defense network.

The situation gained further prominence amid the COVID-19 outbreak, which compelled people to embrace digitization and made it the new way of life. Several merchants have been affected severely by payment frauds due to cybercrimes. Per the Global Payment Risk Mitigation Report of Worldpay from FIS, around 89% of merchants surveyed fell victim to payment fraud as a result of which their revenues suffered last year.

The scenario calls for merchants to equip themselves with flexible end-to-end payment protection solutions. Upgraded technologies like multi-factor authentication and automated chargeback management solutions are being increasingly put to use. Adoption of machine learning technology, which holds potential to detect suspicious transactions and process substantial quantities of complex digital data, can result in lesser incidence of cybercrimes.

Cybersecurity Ventures anticipates global cybercrime costs to increase by 15% each year on a year-over-year basis and reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Per the same research firm, the metric stood at $3 trillion in 2015. It is abundantly clear that businesses have to spend massive amounts on recovering customers’ losses as result of cyber frauds. This expenditure can be reduced if companies act in a prudent manner and undertake significant investments in devising cutting-edge fraud detection and prevention solutions.

Digital transactions will continue even in the post-pandemic era. Thus, companies offering a comprehensive portfolio of fraud detection solutions for varied industries will be best positioned to address such fraudulent activities with higher accuracy. In fact, these solutions are likely to pave way for a safer e-commerce environment, thereby instilling confidence among consumers regarding adopting digital means.

4 Stocks to Watch

These four Zacks #3 (Hold) Ranked stocks have been rolling out a diverse range of digital solutions to protect merchants and consumers from fraudulent activities. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Mastercard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) has been making consistent efforts to enhance its suite of digital identity services. It had unveiled a framework, which emphasized on forming alliances with leading technology partners to launch digital identity solutions and build a sound operational digital identity infrastructure. In June 2021, the company acquired Ekata in a bid to extend its identity verification efforts and assure safe and secured digital transactions for merchants and customers.

For 2021, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s revenues and earnings suggests year-over-year growth of 19.8% and 20.5%, respectively.

In a year, shares of the company have gained 22.5% compared with the industry’s growth of 12.1%.

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) launched the Advanced Identity Score in 2020 to minimize digital identity frauds and reduce operational costs linked with identity-related forgeries. The company continues to invest in technology for minimizing the impact of fraud, and safeguarding consumer and merchant-oriented information.

For 2021, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s revenues and earnings indicates year-over-year improvement of 7.2% and 10.9%, respectively.

Shares of the company have appreciated 20.1% in a year compared with the industry’s growth of 12.1%.

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL - Free Report) made substantial investments to use blockchain technology for boosting digital identity capabilities. The company’s risk management and tokenization ensures legitimacy of transactions and prevents illegal or fraudulent transactions. In May 2021, the company joined forces with Arkose Labs for combating security threats and fraud across the former’s Honey shopping and rewards platform.

For 2021, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s revenues and earnings suggests year-over-year growth of 20.1% and 21.9%, respectively.

In a year, shares of the company have surged 63.1% compared with the industry’s rally of 37.3%.

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

American Express Company (AXP - Free Report) has been making every effort to enhance its digital solutions suite for assisting its merchants and Card members across the globe. In June 2021, the company partnered with online fraud prevention companies namely Accertify, Microsoft and Riskified. The move paved way for integrating American Express fraud identification solution Enhanced Authorization into the fraud management platforms of the three partners.  Together, they aim to detect and block fraudulent transactions and strive to make online shopping a safer experience.

For 2021, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s revenues and earnings suggests year-over-year growth of 8.9% and 41%, respectively.

Shares of the company have climbed 77% in a year compared with the industry’s growth of 7.3%.

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

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