PayPal tops Evercore ISI's payment stock picks for 2022
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Evercore ISI analysts led by David Togut name PayPal Holdings (PYPL
-0.0%) as top payment pick for 2022, as they see the stock benefiting from e-commerce growth continuing this year.
That's followed by Mastercard (MA
+0.8%), Equifax (EFX
+0.1%), and Accenture (ACN
-0.6%), in order of investment preference, the analysts write in a note to clients.

Togut and his colleagues see ACH (Automated Clearing House)/account-to-account disruptions; superior and disruptive Buy Now, Pay Later growth; continued strong e-commerce growth; rebound in cross-border travel; and rising inflation as the major themes and debates for the year. By company:
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) provides a "pure-play in e-commerce" and "occupies a superior market position as a digital and mobile merchant acquirer with strong mobile wallet, gateway, P2P payments, and ACH money transfer capability." Togut estimates that the company could regain 20% revenue growth, offsetting the 200 basis point headwind from eBay's transition to Adyen, by the end of 2022.
Mastercard (NYSE:MA): Prefers MA over Visa (NYSE:V) on higher 2022-2024 constant currency revenue growth potential of 20% vs. 16% for Visa. "Such superior revenue growth stems from MA's market leadership in emerging regions such as Continental Europe, where the shift to electronic payments remains in early stages, combined with its differentiated high growth Services business."
Equifax (NYSE:EFX): The company's Workforce Solutions unit, its largest business, has a near-monopoly in income and employment verification, reducing its dependence on mortgage, auto, and credit card-related consumer credit reporting demand. The analysts expect Workforce Solutions revenue to increase 19% in 2022 and 13% in 2023, 2% and 3% above consensus, respectively.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN): Evercore analysts point to the company's "superior positioning for digital, cloud, and security services-related demand, its largest growth driver, combined with sustainable market share gains, modest margin expansion potential and shareholder-friendly capital allocation." Their 2023 net revenue estimate is 7% above consensus and EPS estimate is 8% higher than the Street.
In the past year, EFX and ACN shares outperformed the S&P 500, while PYPL and MA lagged as seen in chart here.
Earlier this week, BMO Capital upgraded PayPal (PYPL) to Outperform as analyst James Fotheringham estimates 21% annual organic revenue growth for the payment stock.