Speculations in the market indicating that retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT may adopt Digimarc Corporation's DMRC flagship bar code technology — digital watermarks — sent the latter’s shares up by nearly 14%.
Per media reports, Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon revealed in an Instagram post that the company is carrying on a test on invisible watermarking — a new bar-coding technology — in one of its labs.
The bar code technology, if adopted, can effectively eliminate long lines queues at Wal-Mart’s checkout counters. Unlike conventional watermarks that are placed at the bottom of the package, Digimarc’s watermarks are embedded all over the item making it easier for scanners to locate.
The invisible watermarks do away with the hassle of searching for watermarks, thus saving a lot of time. The shoppers can place the items in a cart equipped with scanners that can easily find barcodes.
Beaverton-based Digimarc is a leading digital identity creator that uses watermark technology embedded in printed material. Reportedly, 36 items can be scanned in a minute with digital watermarks compared with 24 carrying traditional bar codes.
Investors became interested in Digimarc especially after Wal-Mart CEO himself praised its digital watermarking technology. Speculation regarding a possible technology sharing agreement between the two companies pushed the share price of Digimarc higher.
The technology, introduced in 2014, has become increasingly popular because of its utility. Digimarc’s shares experienced a similar jump in May 2015, when the popular mobile app, Shazam, integrated its visual recognition technology with its products. Again, earlier in June, SAM Group, a leading Point of Sale services provider, announced that it will begin offering Digimarc Barcode to its grocery and other retail customers in the U.S.
While Digimarc currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), Wal-Mart carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). a couple of better-ranked stocks in the technology sector are Pointer Telocation Ltd. PNTR and Lakeland Industries Inc. LAKE. Both the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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