Blueshift Ideas Positive on Green Dot
Blueshift Ideas is out with a series of tweets on Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) and is mostly positive on the name.
The boutique research firm notes that Green Dot is the leader in in the growing pre-paid card market. In their research, Blueshift noted that banks are increasingly falling behind Green Dot and NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: NTSP) to capture the market place and offer products to "the unbanked or underbanked." The research goes on to note that the prepaid card industry is expected to continue to grow, thanks to high unemployment, higher bank fees, and the government move to e-payment.
Blueshift says that there are an estimated 60 million adults who are “unbanked” or “underbanked” in this country. It says that Green Dot and its Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) MoneyCard are the clear leader in this industry, with the strong brand recognition. It has a much larger retail footprint than NetSpend.
On the contrary, Green Dot is facing increased competition in the space. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has come up with its own pre-paid card, and American Express (NYSE: AXP) and recently entered the space. MasterCard (NYSE: MA) has entered the space with Mango, which has a 5.1% interest up to $5,000.
At last check, shares of Green Dot were up 86 cents to $30.48, a gain of 2.90%.
