Blackbaud BLKB recently collaborated with Flywire Corporation FLYW, a global payments and software organization, aims to improve the payments experience for international students paying tuition at private and independent K-12 schools in the United States. By integrating Flywire’s global payments platform into Blackbaud’s tuition management system, schools and families can benefit from a unified and streamlined payment experience, providing real-time, secure and easy-to-use payment processing for families around the world.
Boarding schools and independent primary and secondary schools are working to attract more international students by improving recruitment strategies, providing better student support and reaching diverse audiences. Simplifying payment processes, including currency conversion and cross-border transactions, helps remove enrollment barriers. Flexible payment plans and secure options make schools more attractive and accessible, encouraging higher enrollment, especially among international and non-local families.
High school tuition payments in the United States can range from $4,200 to more than $29,000 annually. Traditionally, families rely on international bank transfers or credit cards to handle these payments; methods that are often associated with high costs, limited insight into transactions and processing delays. To address these challenges, the partnership between Flywire and Blackbaud provides a robust solution that transforms the payment experience for both parties involved.
Schools using Blackbaud benefit from Flywire’s out-of-the-box integration and 24/7 multilingual support. This integration ensures smooth payment processing within Blackbaud and provides real-time balances and payment status updates for front-end and back-end users. The Flywire-Blackbaud partnership not only improves payments, but also addresses the broader challenges faced by international families and schools. By simplifying international tuition payments, the integration allows schools to attract and retain diverse student populations while increasing operational efficiency.
Blackbaud, Inc. price consensus chart | Quote from Blackbaud, Inc
Blackbaud is a leading software provider focused on supporting social impact. The software is designed to increase impact in areas such as fundraising, nonprofit financial management, digital giving, grant making, corporate social responsibility and education management.
Strong momentum in the core social sector, along with strategic partnerships, is supporting BLKB’s stock movement. In September 2024, BLKB expanded its long-standing partnership with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft AI and analytics into software designed for the specific operational needs of social impact organizations, eliminating the need for costly customizations.
The social sector contributed 89% of the company’s revenue in the third quarter, up 6.6% year-on-year. Within this sector, contractual recurring revenue increased 6.8%, while transactional recurring revenue increased 6.6%. Management is optimistic about the sector’s long-term performance and emphasizes its resilience even during economic downturns such as the pandemic. A revised strategy for pricing renewal contracts is also expected to drive growth. The company plans to transition 65% of eligible customers to updated contract terms and pricing by the end of 2024, with another 25% switching in 2025 and the final 10% completing the process in 2026. Healthy financial performance is likely to boost the share price. .
BLKB currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Following the announcement, shares of BLKB rose 2.8% to close the trading session on November 21 at $85.37. The company’s shares are up 13% in the past year, compared to the subsector’s growth of 17%.
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Some other top stocks from the broader tech space are Workday Inc. WDAY and InterDigital, Inc. IDCC. IDCC currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while WDAY has a Zacks Rank #2. You can see it The complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks can be found here.
IDCC is a pioneer in advanced mobile technologies that enable wireless communications and capabilities. The company is engaged in designing and developing a wide range of advanced technology solutions, which are used in both digital cellular and wireless 3G, 4G and IEEE 802 related products and networks. It has a long-term growth expectation of 17.44%.
WDAY is a leading provider of enterprise-level software solutions for financial management and HR domains. The company’s cloud-based platform combines finance and HR into one system, making it easier for organizations to provide analytical insights and decision support. In the last reported quarter, it delivered an earnings surprise of 7.36%.
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