Lender Processing Services (LPS), the subsidiary spun off in a separate NYSE listing by Fidelity National Information Services last week, has entered the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index. The index fell .8% to 80.92 in a short week for US markets. The Innovation Group saw the biggest gain while Bravura led the losers.
LPS replaces US-based customer experience software vendor Chordiant in the index. LPS provides mortgage lenders with origination, automated title and settlement, processing, default, valuation, risk management, tax, flood and collateral protection services.
The spin-off was completed on July 2, and Fidelity NIS shareholders were given one share of LPS for every two Fidelity shares they held. Shares in LPS had begun trading after the June 24 record date on an 'as issued' basis at $30. After their first full day of way trading on NYSE on Thursday, shares in LPS closed at $31.10 after opening at $33.10.
Shares in Fidelity NIS itself were downgraded on Thursday by a Goldman Sachs analyst, who said that after the spin-off, Fidelity has limited growth potential. Julio Quinteros Jr. told the Associated Press that Fidelity's exposure to banks will impair growth, because he thinks the banking industry will continue to weaken through the end of 2009, and he downgraded the stock to "Neutral" from "Buy" and lowered his six-month price target to $25 per share from $45.
Fidelity NIS ended Thursday at $20.14 after closing the previous week at $36.97, with most of the fall reflecting the separation of the LPS business.
Gainers
Only five index companies rose more than 5% last week:
- The Innovation Group, up 12.9% to 17.50p
- i-flex, up 9.94% to Rs1515.00
- GlobeOp, up 5.40% to 205p
- Fiserv, up 5.10% to $48.24
Losers
Bravura was the index's biggest faller last week, closing Friday down 25.90% to AUD$1.03 after a second earnings downgrade in two weeks from the Australian wealth management software vendor threatened to derail a planned takeover by private equity firm Ironbridge Capital.
Other companies to see significant falls last week include:
S1, down 9.45% to $7.19
ORC Software, down 9.09% to Skr100
Mphasis, down 9.05% to Rs201
Computershare, down 8.95% to AUD$8.65
Morningstar, down 8.43% to $67.39
Index comparison
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Methodology
More information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found here.