BTIG Likes CardConnect, Initiates With Buy Rating And $14 Target

CardConnect Corp CCN differentiates itself from other payment providers by the proprietary gateway and security solutions offered, BTIG’s Mark Palmer said in a report. He initiated coverage of the company with a Buy rating and $14 price target.

Payment Gateway

CardConnect offers small- and medium-sized businesses a very easy-to-use proprietary payment gateway. The CardPointe payment platform allows merchants to manage their accounts and view all payment processing data in one place.

Security

The CardPointe payments platform is combined with the company’s secure payment processing middleware and patented point-to-point encryption (P2PE) tokenization solutions. This positions CardConnect to “benefit from the secular trend toward electronic payments,” Palmer mentioned.

Competitive Edge

“While CCN has invested heavily in technology and offers both the gateway/merchant acquiring bundle, several of its main competitors have not made comparable investments and in our view offer a weaker value proposition,” Palmer added.

Upside To Shares

The analyst expects CardConnect to generate over 24 percent revenue growth and more than 31 percent adjusted EBITDA growth over the next couple of years. He added that this would result in “meaningful share price appreciation.”

CardConnect’s shares have been under pressure due to investor concern over the merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp in July 2016. “As additional clarity emerges regarding CCN’s “de-SPACing” and the SPAC warrants, we believe this overhang will be removed,” Palmer stated.

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