Global Payments (GPN) Reports Q4 Results Above Expectations

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN), founded in 2000, is engaged in offering payment processing services primarily to merchants. The company made several acquisitions and partnerships over the years to become a leading provider of financial technology services. Meanwhile, it is also trying to enhance its existing offerings using new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

The Atlanta, Georgia-based company on Monday announced better-than-expected financial results for the fourth quarter. Global Payments reported earnings of $183 million, or 61 cents per share for the quarter, significantly higher than $103 million, or 34 cents per share in the same period of 2019. On an adjusted basis, earnings came in at $1.80 per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of $1.76 per share.

Revenue came in at $1.93 billion, slightly down from $1.99 billion in the comparable period of 2019, but above the consensus forecast of $1.90 billion.

GPN shares marginally moved down in the mid-day trading Monday despite beating analysts’ expectations for Q4. If we look at GPN’s performance in recent months, its shares have mostly traded flat. The stock has not gained any value during the past 12 months.

Looking forward, Global Payments projected adjusted earnings in the range of $7.75 per share to $8.05 per share and revenue between $7.5 billion and $7.6 billion for the full year. On the other hand, analysts on average expect the company to report adjusted earnings of $8 per share on revenue of $7.58 billion for 2021.

Meanwhile, the company also announced a partnership with Google. Global Payments will offer merchant-acquiring services to the search engine giant, according to the terms of the agreement. The two companies also plan to arrange certain marketing and selling activities together in the future. For instance, they plan to jointly work on product development to further improve the suite of cloud-based offerings available to merchants on Google Cloud.