New Word from Mizuho Puts Worldpay Up a Notch

A new report came out from Mizuho’s Thomas McCrohan, and Mizuho tipped us off about same. The news looks pretty good for Worldpay in this one, and while the sentiment doesn’t seem universal, there’s still quite a bit of exciting news going on for the mobile payments platform.

First, the big news from Mizuho; Mizuho upgraded Worldpay from “neutral” to “buy,” a significant step up. This development followed what Mizuho called “sustainable revenue growth” and “a likely cadence of positive revisions to out-year estimates.” It also noted that investors were ‘recalibrat(ing)”, and that legacy Worldpay clients were likely to move their US ecommerce volume to Worldpay in a bid to reduce the total number of vendors they were working with previously.

In the best news for Worldpay out of Mizuho, Mizuho raised its estimates, and its price target went to $125, a nice step up. Analyst consensus suggests a “strong buy” recommendation and a price target not too far off of Mizuho’s at $106.26. Given that TipRanks.com counts McCrohan as a five-star analyst with an 81.1 percent success rate, Mizuho’s projections aren’t half bad. Mizuho’s buy rating matches up with Berenberg Bank’s buy rating, though Berenberg’s rating features a $120 price target.

In a strange twist, though, SmarterAnalyst.com notes that the corporate insider sentiment is actually negative. Though that’s based on the activity of nine insiders, it’s still a surprise to see so much consensus seemingly arrayed against the insider perspective. That digression can happen, certainly, and by all reports things are looking good for Worldpay. It’s actually potentially explainable; with insiders seemingly selling out and distancing themselves from the stock, it’s possible they could be taking profit a bit early. After all, with positive analysis coming out left, right and center, the stock has benefited accordingly. It’s been on a pretty upward swing since early August, where it’s gained over $15 per share. The insiders could be taking advantage of that uptick and considering the analysts’ figures a little too optimistic.

Only time will tell if the insiders prove more correct than the analysts, though given the sheer bulk of analyst sentiment, it’s looking good for the analysts.