There's no shortage of media analysis about who might benefit from the data breach at Target Corp., which exposed credit card information from millions of shoppers.

Investors and analysts are circling companies that could benefit from a major upgrade in credit card technology, according to Reuters, and one of their favorites is VeriFone Systems Inc., one of two major global manufacturers of point-of-sale terminals and mobile payments systems.

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase and Jefferies & Co upgraded their outlook for the company in recent days, Reuters reports, which has helped increase VeriFone's shares price by about 25 percent since the Target breach was reported on Dec. 18.

That exuberance is based on expectations that the typically slow-to-change U.S. credit card industry is about to make a widespread investment into new technology — EMV — that could reduce fraud in the U.S. The Target breach has created more urgency over the security issue, analyst Andrew Jeffrey told Reuters.

"For the first time, we get the feeling that the cost of conversion is being outweighed by the open-ended liability associated with making consumers whole when their accounts are compromised, and the potential damage to retailers' brands," he said.

Implementing an EMV system in the U.S. could prompt merchants to buy 15 million to 20 million credit card terminals, analyst Darrin Peller told the news outlet.

Those purchases would likely be split between VeriFone and its largest competitor, the French company Ingenico, he said.

That could help turn around VeriFone's solutions services division, which fell 20 percent in the fiscal year that ended in October, according to Reuters.

Some analysts question whether VeriFone is overvalued after the recent stock surge. The company declined to comment to Reuters.

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