One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$115.91 our estimate vs market $78.10
Wall Street consensus: $105.00 (-9.4% lower than our fair-value estimate)
33% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Global Payments Inc.
GPN · NYQ · Industrials · Specialty Business Services
Current price
$78.10
52-week range
$61.16 - $95.88
Market cap
$20.67B
Balance sheet
Stretched
2.27x Stretched
Net debt $18.15B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 24.9% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Net debt grew 10.1% over 3 years.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 18.6% to 16.1% over 3 years.
What this company does
Global Payments Inc.
Global Payments provides the technology that allows businesses of all sizes to accept electronic payments, such as when you tap your credit card at a local store or pay online. The company primarily makes money by taking a small fee from each transaction it handles and by selling software that helps its business customers manage things like sales and payroll. This matters because the company's success is tied to the growing trend of people using cards and digital wallets instead of cash for their daily purchases.
How the company got here
Global Payments started in 1967 as a part of another company and became its own publicly traded entity in 2001. It has grown significantly by acquiring other companies, which is a common strategy for expansion. Key moments include buying Heartland Payment Systems in 2016, which strengthened its business with small to medium-sized companies in the U.S., and a major merger with TSYS in 2019 that expanded its capabilities. The company has a history of purchasing businesses to enter new markets and add new services.
What it actually does
Global Payments provides the technology and software that allow businesses to accept various forms of payment, like credit cards, debit cards, and digital payments. When you buy something at a store or online, there's a good chance their technology is working behind the scenes to handle the transaction securely. They serve millions of merchants in over 100 countries, processing billions of transactions each year. Beyond just processing payments, they also offer solutions that help businesses manage their operations more efficiently.
Merchant Solutions
This is the largest part of Global Payments' business, making up the majority of its revenue. It provides a wide range of payment processing services to businesses of all sizes, from small local shops to large multinational corporations. This includes providing point-of-sale (the system used to check out customers) terminals, software for e-commerce websites, and tools to prevent fraud. Essentially, this segment helps businesses accept payments from their customers, no matter how or where they are made.
Issuer Solutions
This segment works with financial institutions, like banks and credit unions, that issue credit and debit cards to consumers. Global Payments provides the services needed to manage the entire lifecycle of these cards, from production and personalization to processing transactions and managing customer accounts. Think of this as the back-end support that allows your bank to offer you a credit or debit card that works smoothly and securely. While a smaller part of the company, it provides essential services to the banking industry.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on becoming a global leader in commerce solutions by concentrating on markets where they have a strong competitive position. A key part of their strategy is to unify their products and services worldwide, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. They are also investing in technology, such as cloud-based software and artificial intelligence, to offer more innovative products to their clients. Management is also focused on streamlining the company to operate more efficiently and has a goal of returning a significant amount of cash to its shareholders.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$1.56B
FY2024 Q4
$469.42M
FY2025 Q1
$427.55M
FY2025 Q2
$665.36M
FY2025 Q3
$598.92M
FY2025 Q4
$347.00M
FY2026 Q1
$-550.16M
FY2026 Q2
$426.95M
Revenue
$3.32B
Net income
$12.97M
Diluted EPS
0.05
Operating cash flow
$662.62M
Free cash flow
$426.95M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.97B
Net income
$-1.80B
Diluted EPS
-6.59
Operating cash flow
$-288.82M
Free cash flow
$-550.16M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.33B
Net income
$217.52M
Diluted EPS
0.91
Operating cash flow
$515.21M
Free cash flow
$347.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.01B
Net income
$635.21M
Diluted EPS
2.64
Operating cash flow
$768.73M
Free cash flow
$598.92M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.96B
Net income
$241.64M
Diluted EPS
0.99
Operating cash flow
$817.52M
Free cash flow
$665.36M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.41B
Net income
$305.73M
Diluted EPS
1.24
Operating cash flow
$555.12M
Free cash flow
$427.55M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.52B
Net income
$567.17M
Diluted EPS
2.23
Operating cash flow
$653.43M
Free cash flow
$469.42M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.60B
Net income
$315.12M
Diluted EPS
1.24
Operating cash flow
$1.73B
Free cash flow
$1.56B
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $115.91 vs current price $78.10
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $105.00 (-9.4% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $115.91 a share — about 48.4% above today's price of $78.10, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $18.1B. Interest coverage 2.3x.
Net debt
$18.15B
Interest coverage
2.27x
Global Payments Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 2.3 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
GPN
BASELINE
Global Payments Inc.
Total debt $23.56B Interest coverage 2.27x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt — Interest coverage 3.72x +64% vs GPN Carries about 1.6x more debt cushion than GPN.
Total debt $21.26B Interest coverage 4.50x +99% vs GPN Carries about 2.0x more debt cushion than GPN.
Total debt $14.22B Interest coverage 14.50x +540% vs GPN Carries about 6.4x more debt cushion than GPN.
Total debt $461.05M Interest coverage 55.65x +2,356% vs GPN Carries about 24.6x more debt cushion than GPN.
What you should know
The case for and against GPN
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 24.9% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
-
Dividend yield is 1.2% with 26-year payout history.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 10.1% over 3 years.
-
Operating margin compressed from 18.6% to 16.1% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
37.01x
Forward P/E
4.88x
P/B
0.90x
P/S
2.02x
EV/EBITDA
8.98x
PEG ratio
0.20x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
64.0%
Operating margin
16.1%
Net margin
-9.2%
ROE
2.4%
ROA
2.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.98x
Current ratio
0.82x
Quick ratio
0.49x
Total debt
$23.56B
Total cash
$5.41B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$9.63B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-2.5%
EPS TTM
2.11
EPS 5Y CAGR
143.6%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$1.66B
Free CF TTM
$2.04B
FCF margin
21.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.2%
Payout ratio
47.4%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-11