This Lesser-Known Industrial Earns a Cut of America's Premium Card Obsession
With a slice of annual credit card fees paid by this country's growing base, this stock is up 90% over the last year.
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It's not just credit giants like American Express AXP, Chase JPM and Capital One COF earning a small fortune on premium credit cards. With a CNC machine, some sophisticated machining and new technology, a lesser known industrial firm is earning a modest drip from the annual fees of America's mass affluent.
The New Jersey-based CompoSecure CMPO has carved out a small monopoly on the metal debit and credit card market by etching the names of new cardholders onto highfalutin wallet companions from eight of the top 10 U.S. card issuers.
Since 2010, the company has made over 200 million metal payment cards. And while that might seem slim in comparison to the more than 18.1 billion cards estimated to have been in circulation at the end of last year, the company's niche has been able to charge a premium for its fancy-looking cards — and earn a healthy premium in its stock, too.
Driven by robust demand for premium cards, CompoSecure stock has soared nearly 90% over the past year, surpassing a $2 billion valuation. In the latest quarter, the company generated about $119.6 million in sales, rising 10% year over year. Leading the charge were domestic sales, while international sales declined. On its sales, the company's generated a 57.7% gross margin.
What's more impressive is just how much the company is making, at least when considering the sheer scale of the payment card industry. CompoSecure estimates that its cards represented just 0.70% of all new payment cards issued in 2024.
But that trend has accelerated in recent years as more Americans have signed up for luxury travel cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve and American Express Platinum cards, both of which have undergone makeovers in recent weeks. Those makeovers will also come with an ignition of new cards coming off the press.
There's early signs of a bump too. The company already bolstered its guidance outlook for the rest of the year on strong earnings.
Also helping bolster the company are fintechs and new entrants attempting to brand themselves as "upscale," such as Robinhood HOOD, Coinbase COIN, and Gemini (GEMI), all of which have issued new cards with the company in recent quarters.
With a slim share of global cards and a foray into decentralized finance with its new Arculus hardware wallet, the company has become a unique way to measure the health and growth in consumer financial services. And so long as America yearns for luxury cards and products, it remains one of the few in position to add some heft to your wallet.
