In Tuesday trading, the NYSE had 86 new 52-week highs and 63 new 52-week lows. Meanwhile, over on the Nasdaq, there were 241 new 52-week highs, more than double the 116 new 52-week lows.
One of the new 52-week lows was Euronet Worldwide (EEFT), a payments provider based in Kansas City. It hit its 16th new 52-week low of the past 12 months. Down over 11% over the past year, EEFT stock is trailing the S&P 500 by nearly 26 percentage points. It has only traded this low on five occasions over the past eight years.
It’s due for a rebound.
Euronet reports its third-quarter results next Wednesday before the markets. The average analyst earnings per share estimate is $3.35, 20% higher than a year ago. It’s expected to earn $8.86 a share in 2025, 16% higher than in 2024.
With a forward P/E ratio of 9.4x, EEFT stock appears to be a value play emerging. Should you buy ahead of time or wait for the news to break?
Here’s my two cents on the subject.
Why Is EEFT Stock Trading This Low?
The most obvious reason for underperforming the indexes is the industry in which it competes.
Looking through its 2025 proxy, the company lists 18 stocks in its peer group, including Global Payments (GPN), NCR Voyix (VYX), Western Union (WU), and WEX (WEX). The average one-year return for the four peers is -21.5%, almost twice as bad as Euronet’s performance of -11.5% in the past 12 months.
The trend is your friend until it’s not.
Investor’s Business Daily ranks 197 sub-industries for their stock performance over the past six months. Euronet’s is 140th. That gives you a pretty good idea of why it’s not performing at the moment.
On July 30, Euronet announced it was buying CoreCard (CCRD) for $248 million, paying for the acquisition with EEFT stock. The acquisition makes sense for Euronet because CoreCard’s credit card technology, combined with its global payments infrastructure, helps expand the company’s U.S. presence while also accelerating its digital transformation.
The problem for investors is the exchange ratio agreed to by both parties.
While the price per CoreCard share is $30, the amount of stock their shareholders receive varies between 0.2783 and $0.3142 shares of Euronet. The actual amount is calculated using the VWAP (volume-weighted average price) of Euronet's stock over the 15 trading days before the deal closes.
So, when the deal closes, if Euronet’s share price is below $95.48, shareholders receive 0.3142 Euronet shares for each CoreCard share. If the share price is above $107.80, they only receive $0.2783 Euronet shares.
With the deal expected to close by the end of 2025, Euronet will likely have to exchange shares with CoreCard shareholders at the higher ratio. Based on 7,792,382 CoreCard shares outstanding as of Sept. 18, Euronet would issue 2,448,366 of its shares. That increases its share count by about 6%.
With $2.27 billion in cash on its balance sheet and its shares trading at 52-week lows, the better play is paying for the acquisition in cash.
Lastly, there is always the concern that integrating CoreCard into Euronet’s business will not go smoothly, potentially exposing some of its customers to disruptions in their business workflows.
How significant a risk? We’ll find out in 2026.
What’s the Potential for Euronet Stock?
As I mentioned in the introduction, Euronet stock trades at a low forward P/E ratio of 9.4x. That’s the lowest multiple at any time in the past decade.
When EEFT stock hit its all-time high $171.25 on July 1, 2019, the forward P/E multiple was 21.39 according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, more than double what it is today. Yet, its revenues today are 50% higher than in 2019, and its operating income is also higher, albeit with an EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margin that’s 430 basis points lower at 13.0%.
I don’t think there’s any question that Euronet has veered into value territory. The question is when investors will rescue it.
Based on an enterprise value of $3.82 billion and trailing 12-month free cash flow of $587.4 million as of June 30, Euronet’s free cash flow yield is 15.4%. I consider anything above 8% to be in value territory.
The only downside from a valuation perspective would be its net debt of $326.2 million. In 2019, its net debt was just $28.6 million, thanks to a total debt of $1.48 billion, which is 43% less than the $2.59 billion it has today.
With all the stories of private credit bankruptcies rearing their ugly head, less debt is preferred, but I don’t believe Euronet shareholders have anything to worry about. As of June 30, its trailing 12-month interest expense was $93.1 million, or 17% of its $538.7 million in operating income. That’s more than manageable.
The Bottom Line on Euronet
According to Barchart data, 11 analysts rate EEFT stock, with seven giving it a Buy (4.00 out of 5) rating, and a target price of $122, which is 40% higher than its current share price.
The most challenging part of evaluating payment providers is understanding where a company sits on the future technology divide. The fintech highway is littered with companies that were rising stars, only to burn out soon after.
As an SMID-cap, Euronet’s destiny is not guaranteed. That said, 8-10% growth in annual revenue, combined with EBIT margins in the double digits, should be enough over the next 3-5 years for shareholders to double their money.
From 2010 to 2017, Euronet stock went in one direction — higher. Then, over the next eight years, EEFT stock has been on a rollercoaster ride, largely due to the highly competitive nature of the payments business.
While I don’t think it’s going away, I do believe Euronet stock can return to the $170s, where it traded in 2019, over the next 2-3 years.
EEFT is a value buy.
