2015’s Best Performing European Stock: FPC

Fingerprint Cards had the best-performing stock in Europe last year, according to new reports. The stock’s value rose by a whopping 1,391 percent to reach a value of $3.9 billion.

It’s a major accomplishment, but it won’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who has been following the company closely over the last year. As Apple’s Touch ID system helped to popularize smartphone-based fingerprint sensors in late 2014, FPC positioned itself to take advantage of a market boom that saw a range of other smartphone and consumer electronics makers clamor to integrate the technology into their own offerings. The company’s profits soared as a result.

Speaking to Bloomberg, FPC CEO Jörgen Lantto indicated that the company has high expectations for the future, too, asserting that its main market will grow from 500 million units in 2016 to 1.7 billion in 2018, and adding that FPC’s marketshare could rise from 45 percent in 2015 to 70 percent this year. Lantto also pointed to emerging opportunities in the nascent Internet of Things, where fingerprint authentication could also play an important role.

“We’re at the beginning and just scratching at the surface,” he said.

Sources: Business Insider UK, Bloomberg

(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)