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Fintech, Payments Firms Outperform Expectations Amid Solid Consumer Spending, RBC Says

Financial technology and payments companies outperformed quarterly estimates as consumer spending turned out to be better than expected, though the Middle East conflict weighed on certain guides, RBC Capital Markets said in a note emailed Thursday.The average revenue beat relative to consensus was 1.3% for 18 fintech and payments firms, with a 2.3% beat on earnings per share, according to the note. Twelve companies topped estimates, while three delivered a miss."Consumer spending data from the payments universe was broadly positive for the US in (the second quarter), with the card networks reporting their strongest domestic volumes in years," RBC analyst Daniel Perlin said.Payments giants Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) reported annual volume gains in the most recent quarter, alongside an increase in PayPal's (PYPL) US total payment volume, according to the RBC note.The Iran war continued to weigh on several companies as the associated travel disruption persisted for longer than expected, Perlin wrote.Global Payments (GPN), which processes for 12 of the largest Middle Eastern airlines, was the most affected, while Shift4 Payments (FOUR) forecast a $25 million headwind for the third quarter. Visa said the impact moderated through the second quarter, though its rest-of-year guidance assumes current levels of disruption persist, RBC said.Mastercard, however, saw cross-border travel improve as the second quarter progressed.Factors such as tariff refunds, a lower tax rate and comparison issues create "some messiness" in the setup for the second half of the year, the brokerage said."A common guidance theme across the group was the expectation of (second half) acceleration, for various reasons such as the normalization of one-time items, the onboarding of newly signed contracts, the lapping of elevated prior-year non-recurring revenues, the deployment of cost synergies, and incremental contributions from (artificial intelligence)-driven efficiency programs," Perlin wrote.RBC highlighted Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR), Flywire (FLYW), Mastercard, Visa, SS&C Technologies (SSNC), and Block (XYZ) as best positioned post earnings.Buy-now-pay-later provider Affirm Holdings (AFRM), Jack Henry & Associates (JKHY), PicS (PICS), and Wealthfront (WLTH) are yet to report results.Price: $59.56, Change: $+0.36, Percent Change: +0.61%