Cerence rings bell at Nasdaq, Zwipe, Fingerprint Cards, Ping Identity in biometrics stocks news

Cerence rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq exchange at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square earlier this week, as new developments were reported for several publicly traded companies in the biometrics ecosystem.

The company was congratulated for its successful listing and spinoff from Nuance by its Nasdaq Chief Client Officer Joseph Brantuk, and for putting nearly 325 million voice-enabled cars on the road.

Cerence CEO Sanjay Dhawan spoke about the company’s vision for a safer, more enjoyable journey for drivers through voice control. He says up to 50 million new cars a year rely on Cerence voice technology.

Investment firm initiates Zwipe coverage

Investment banking research firm Redeye has begun covering Zwipe with a report titled “Cards up the sleeve,” with a fair value range of NOK 2 to NOK 25 (US$0.22 to $2.69), illustrating the divergent possibilities for the company in a rapidly changing market.

Analysts Viktor Westman and Magnus Skog say the “(a)dvantages of biometrics are too great for the market not to take off, and cite Zwipe’s exclusive deal with Idemia to provide a biometric payment card platform as a game-changer for the fingerprints company. Zwipe has strong IP, according to the report, and Redeye rates it’s people and business each a three, while it’s financial score only a one.

The 35-page report makes points for bear and bull projections, including wearable pilots in the former list and the expense of biometric payment cards among the latter. Projections for payment card sales forecast 2 million cards with Zwipe technology on the market in 2022, and 7.5 million in 2023. That means the company could generate NOK 201 million ($21.66 million) by 2023 in sales to the market. Those projections are based on a prediction that Zwipe will make some market share gains on Thales and G+D.

Analysts take a cautiously optimistic stance.

“The initial year as a public company has been challenging,” they write. “As the end market has evolved rather slowly, Zwipe has had difficulty progressing in accordance with plans. While the risks are still high, in our view, there is a real case for revival in the year(s) ahead, something which the stock at current levels arguably fails to recognise.’

New FPC Integrations

Fingerprint Cards sensors have been integrated in new tablets and mobile phones, the company announced in a pair of Tweets.

Lenovo is leveraging the FPC1145 sensor in its Yoga Tab 5, while Motorola is implementing the FPC1520 in both its Moto G Power and Moto G Stylus devices, bringing the total number of mobile devices including the company’s technology to 418.

Another Fingerprint Cards partner has launched a smart home lock with the company’s biometric technology, meanwhile.

Ping welcomes back Patrick Harding

Ping Identity has appointed Patrick Harding as Chief Product Architect after two years away from the company. During his time away from the company, Harding consulted in the blockchain and identity space, including advising Hedera Hashgraph on decentralized identity use cases.

“We couldn’t be happier to welcome Patrick back to Ping and have him on board as our Chief Product Architect,” comments Ping Identity CEO Andre Durand. “Having worked with him for over a decade, I know he has the market understanding and forward-looking vision that will continue to propel Ping and our customers toward the future of identity.”

Harding is active in the standards community, and is co-inventor of the SCIM standard. He previously spent 12 years as CTO of Ping. His new role involves overseeing the development and maintenance of the company’s strategic vision and product roadmap, according to the announcement.

“There is massive opportunity for growth and innovation in our industry right now. Identity can and will be leveraged to impact digital experiences across the board for all people—whether they are customers, partners, employees, or citizens,” says Harding. “I chose to return to Ping because of its prioritized investment in strategy and innovation that will bring identity’s full potential to life.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Cerence  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  Ping Identity  |  stocks  |  Zwipe