Could You Be Missing Global Payments Stock’s Upside?

We think Global Payments (GPN) stock could be a good value buy. It is currently trading lower than average valuation, and has reasonable revenue growth and strong margins to go with its modest valuation.

Buying stocks with low valuations or trading well below their peaks but maintaining strong margins allows investors to capture mean reversion and valuation re-rating potential. The downside risk is potentially less because high-margin businesses can sustain earnings and recover faster when sentiment or market conditions improve

What Is Happening With GPN

GPN may be down -34% so far this year but is now 38% cheaper based on its P/S (Price-to-Sales) ratio compared to 1 year ago, and also trades at a P/E (Price-to-Earnings) ratio that is below S&P 500 median.

The stock may not reflect it yet, but here is what’s going well for the company. Global Payments expanded its adjusted operating margin by 110 basis points in Q3 2025, driven by strong execution and value-based pricing, with its core merchant business showing significant margin improvement. Revenue acceleration in its merchant segment, fueled by new Genius platform customer wins and increased deal sizes, signals improving organic growth, offsetting broader industry slowdowns. The current valuation discount likely reflects the ongoing strategic transformation, including the anticipated Worldpay acquisition and Issuer Solutions divestiture in Q1 2026, which promises increased scale and market reach across 40 new markets.

GPN Has Strong Fundamentals

• Reasonable Revenue Growth: 21.0% LTM and 6.8% last 3 year average.
• Strong Margin: Nearly 19.8% 3-year average operating margin.
• No Major Margin Shock: Global Payments has avoided any large large margin collapse in the last 12 months.
• Modest Valuation: Despite encouraging fundamentals, GPN stock trades at a PE multiple of 10.1

Below is a quick comparison of GPN fundamentals with S&P medians.

*LTM: Last Twelve Months

But What Is The Risk Involved?

While GPN stock may be a compelling investment opportunity, it’s always helpful to be aware of a stock’s history of drawdown. GPN fell 44% in both the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid pandemic. The 2018 correction brought a more moderate drop of 26%, but the inflation shock hit even harder, with a 57% decline. Even solid companies like GPN can’t fully escape big sell-offs. Despite all the positive factors, steep drawdowns still show the risks investors face during market stress. But the risk is not limited to major market crashes. Stocks fall even when markets are good – think events like earnings, business updates, outlook changes. Read GPN Dip Buyer Analyses to see how the stock has recovered from sharp dips in the past.

For more details and our view, see Buy or Sell GPN Stock.

Stocks Like GPN

Not ready to act on GPN? Consider these alternatives:

1. Accenture (ACN)
2. Adobe (ADBE)
3. PayPal (PYPL)

We chose these stocks using the following criteria:

1. Greater than $2 Bil in market cap
2. Meaningfully below 1Y high
3. Current P/S < last few year average
4. Strong operating margin
5. P/E ratio below S&P 500 median

A portfolio of stocks with the criteria above would have performed has follows since 12/31/2016:

• Average 6-month and 12-month forward returns of 12.7% and 25.8% respectively
• Win rate (percentage of picks returning positive) of > 70% for both 6-month and 12-month periods
• Strategy consistent across market cycles

Move Beyond Single Stocks With A Multi Asset Portfolio

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