Company Reports

We believe the market is overly concerned about disruption to incumbent payment players like Global Payments. In our view, Global Payments continues to benefit from a strong competitive position, is adapting to a changing industry, and can maintain reasonable growth over time. While Worldpay struggled under FIS' roof, we think that was largely due to underinvestment and a poor strategy, which shouldn't be an issue under Global Payments.

Global Payments continued to see a modest headwind from lower travel spending in the second quarter, and that headwind could persist longer than previously expected. Outside of that, the company posted solid results as it works to integrate Worldpay.

The company closed on the acquisition of Worldpay and sale of its issuer processing business early in the first quarter, and results show the company is off to a good start in its new form.

We believe the market is overly concerned about disruption to incumbent payment players like Global Payments. In our view, Global Payments continues to benefit from a strong competitive position, is adapting to a changing industry, and can maintain reasonable growth over time. While Worldpay struggled under FIS' roof, we think that was due to underinvestment.

Global Payments delivered a solid fourth quarter. With the recent acquisition of Worldpay, we think the market is focused on the 2026 outlook. We were pleased with management's guidance.

While growth and margin improvement increased sequentially we think Global Payments' third-quarter results show the company holding to a steady path as it prepares for the Worldpay acquisition.

We believe the market is overly concerned about disruption to incumbent payment players like Global Payments. In our view, Global Payments continues to benefit from a strong competitive position, is adapting to a changing industry, and can maintain reasonable growth over time. While peer Worldpay struggled under FIS' roof, we think that was due to underinvestment.

Global Payments announced that, in coordination with Elliott Investment Management, it will add two members to its board of directors.

Global Payments delivered a strong second quarter, in our view, with revenue growth holding steady and margins improving.

Bloomberg reports that activist investor Elliott Investment Management has built a stake in Global Payments.

Global Payments announced that it will sell its Payroll business to Acrisure for $1.1 billion.

Global Payments' fourth-quarter results showed the company maintaining its recent path. Additionally, management provided an update on its plans surrounding the Worldpay acquisition.

We believe the market is overly concerned about disruption to incumbent payment players like Global Payments. In our view, Global Payments continues to benefit from a strong competitive position, is adapting to a changing industry, and can maintain reasonable growth over time. While peer Worldpay struggled under FIS' roof, we think that was due to underinvestment.

Global Payments will acquire FIS' minority stake in Worldpay in exchange for Global Payments' Issuer Solutions business. It will also acquire the remaining stake in Worldpay from GTCR. Global Payments states that the deal values Issuer Solutions at $13.5 billion and Worldpay at $24.25 billion.

We believe the market is overly concerned about disruption to incumbent payment players like Global Payments. In our view, Global Payments continues to benefit from a strong competitive position, is adapting to a changing industry and can maintain reasonable growth over time. Additionally, we think upcoming moves to streamline the business and focus on capital return could be long-term positives. While peer Worldpay struggled under FIS' roof, we think that was due to underinvestment, an issue that we don't believe applies to Global Payments.

While we see the direct impact of the tariffs proposed by the Trump administration on payment processors as limited, the indirect effects could be materially negative.

We believe the market is overly concerned about disruption to incumbent payment players like Global Payments. In our view, Global Payments continues to benefit from a strong competitive position, is adapting to a changing industry and can maintain reasonable growth over time. Additionally, we think upcoming moves to streamline the business and focus on capital return could be long-term positives. While peer Worldpay struggled under FIS' roof, we think that was due to underinvestment, an issue that we don't believe applies to Global Payments.

We think Global Payments largely maintained its recent trajectory in the fourth quarter. The company continues to achieve solid growth and modest margin expansion. While it is still early, we think Global Payments is making some progress on the long-term goals that management laid out at its recent investor day, while the market seems to be overly concerned about potential disruption to the business. In our view, the relatively steady performance supports our thesis that the narrow-moat firm can maintain its competitive position in the long run. We maintain our $171 fair value estimate and see the shares as materially undervalued.

Overall, we think Global Payments' third-quarter results came in as expected and the narrow-moat company is maintaining its recent path. In our view, the ongoing ability to produce solid revenue growth and some margin expansion supports our opinion that Global Payments can maintain its competitive position. We maintain our $171 fair value estimate and see the shares as materially undervalued at the moment, as we believe that the market underrates the firm's long-term prospects.

We believe the market is concerned about disruption to incumbent payment players like Global Payments. In our view, though, Global Payments continues to benefit from a strong competitive position and is successfully adapting to a changing industry. Additionally, we think upcoming moves to streamline the business and focus on capital return could be long-term positives. While Worldpay struggled under FIS' roof, we think that was due to underinvestment, an issue that we don't believe applies to Global Payments.