Is GPN a good stock to buy? We came across a bullish thesis on Global Payments Inc. on The Mispricing Desk’s Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls’ thesis on GPN. Global Payments Inc.’s share was trading at $67.71 as of June 12th. GPN’s trailing and forward P/E were 24.89 and 4.91 respectively according to Yahoo Finance.
Global Payments Inc. provides payment technology and software solutions for card, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas and internationally. GPN is emerging as a compelling capital-return and earnings-recovery story following the completion of its Worldpay-related portfolio restructuring. While the market continues to focus on integration complexity, acquisition-accounting charges, amortization expenses, and the company’s leveraged balance sheet, the underlying business is demonstrating resilient operating performance and significant shareholder value creation.
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In the first quarter of 2026, Global Payments reported 5.5% normalized adjusted net revenue growth, adjusted operating margins of 42.4%, and adjusted diluted EPS of $2.96, while reaffirming full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $13.80 to $14.00 and adjusted net revenue growth of 5% to 6%. More importantly, management has aggressively deployed capital into share repurchases, retiring 7.26 million shares for $549.9 million during the first quarter at an average price of $75.73 and authorizing an additional $500 million accelerated share repurchase program expected to settle by June 30, 2026.
Combined, these actions will have retired or contractually locked in roughly 13 million shares, representing nearly 4.8% of shares outstanding, yet the stock continues to trade below the price management recently paid. This disconnect forms the core of the investment thesis. Rather than valuing Global Payments as a cash-generative payments platform with visible earnings and meaningful share-count reduction, investors remain anchored to the lingering Worldpay cleanup narrative.
If management delivers on its reaffirmed guidance and demonstrates that integration costs are temporary, the market could begin recognizing the durability of the post-transaction earnings base. Under this scenario, the shares could rerate toward the author’s $75 base-case target and potentially reach $83 in a more optimistic outcome, implying upside of approximately 21% from the quoted price of $68.77.
Previously, we covered a bullish thesis on Global Payments Inc. (GPN) by Excelsior Capital in November 2024, which highlighted the company’s undervaluation, consistent earnings growth, strong cash flow generation, and operational improvement initiatives despite industry headwinds. GPN’s stock price has depreciated by approximately 42.16% since our coverage. The Mispricing Desk shares a similar view but emphasizes aggressive share repurchases, post-Worldpay restructuring progress, and a potential rerating driven by meaningful share-count reduction.
Global Payments Inc. is not on our list of the 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 61 hedge fund portfolios held GPN at the end of the first quarter which was 62 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of GPN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GPN and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
Disclosure: None.
