Should You Still Consider Investing in Global Payments (GPN)?

Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Mid Cap Fund’ third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 3.06% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTMX, 3.11% by its Advisor Class: APDMX, and 3.12% by its Institutional Class: APHMX, in the third quarter of 2021, all outpacing the Russell Midcap® Growth Index that delivered a -0.76% return, and the Russell Midcap® Index that was down by -0.93% for the same period. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

Artisan Mid-Cap Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) and discussed its stance on the firm. Global Payments Inc. is an Atlanta, Georgia-based financial services company with a $36.5 billion market capitalization. GPN delivered a -41.54% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -33.96%. The stock closed at $125.93 per share on November 19, 2021.

Here is what Artisan Mid-Cap Fund has to say about Global Payments Inc.  in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“Global Payments has delivered solid results so far this year and recently revised its 2021 outlook upward. However, shares have been pressured as investors weigh the competitive threat from faster growing emerging payments companies. We have spent significant time contemplating this risk, and given our belief the company will not completely thwart the competition, we trimmed our position size. That said, we still believe Global Payments belongs in the CropSM of our portfolio. The company has long been shifting its business away from legacy payments technology toward durable growth areas such as software and omnichannel commerce. Furthermore, it is making substantial cloud investments in partnership with Google and Amazon Web Services to future-proof its underlying technology stack. These decisions lead us to believe management’s targets (~10% revenue growth, ~20% EPS growth) remain achievable and should lead to solid stock returns over the longer term.”

Photo by DocuSign on Unsplash

Based on our calculations, Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. GPN was in 66 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first half of 2021, compared to 62 funds in the previous quarter. Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) delivered a -22.77% return in the past 3 months.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.