Global Payments Inc (GPN) stock analysis
Global Payments Inc (GPN) clears 2 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 3 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 1 of 5 Lynch-style checks. A free-cash-flow DCF does not fit financial services companies, so no margin of safety is shown. Its earnings quality rates Strong and it returns +5.7% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does Global Payments do?
Global Payments processes card payments for merchants of all sizes and sells point-of-sale systems and business software.
Brands and businesses it owns
- Heartland
- Genius
What stands out about Global Payments?
- Misses 3 of the 8 value filters. It fails Market Cap > $25B ($22.3B), PEG Ratio < 1.5 (2.38) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (-95.2%); the other 2 pass and 3 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Weakest against peers: return on equity. At −4% (peer median 18%) it ranks 39th of 40 among financial services stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Short interest is elevated. 6.8% of the float is sold short, 5.9 days to cover, above this site's 5% flag. See the figures.
- Returns 5.7% of its value to owners a year. Dividends plus buybacks, minus the stock issued to staff, as a share of market value. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
How has Global Payments' share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Global Payments undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) n/a (Financial Services)
- Wall St. analyst rating Buy · 3.59/5 41 analysts this month: 8 strong buy, 10 buy, 21 hold, 2 sell, 0 strong sell (Finnhub). Down from 3.62 last month.
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) n/a (Financial Services)
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) Strong · all 5 checks clean Beneish M-score −2.67 · accruals −2.5% of assets · 209% of profit arrived as cash · stock comp 2.0% of revenue · share count −3.8% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025) - see the Earnings Quality Screener for how each check is scored.
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) +5.7% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 1.1% + buybacks 5.3% − stock comp 0.7%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 5 years its split-adjusted share count fell 19%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) $17.07 per $1 of new profit · Capital-hungry · but only 6% return on capital Operating profit $551M → $1.7B, capital needed $7.6B → $27B, 2016–2025 (3-year averages); return on capital now 6% before tax. Buffett's See's Candies needed $0.42 per $1 of new profit, FlightSafety $3.20, a typical grower about $5. See Capital-Light Compounders.
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) n/a (falling or negative earnings)
- Compounder lenses (4) 2 of 4 · misses capital-light, price (n/a) Capital-light growth: not cleared (only 6% return on capital); Profit is real: cleared; Cash to owners: cleared; Fair price (PEG): cannot be measured (falling or negative earnings). See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Munger's Inversion Check 2 flags
- Standing vs. sector peers 0 of 3 measures above the median Compared with the 39 other financial services stocks this site tracks: 0 in the top third, 3 in the bottom third.
- Dividend payout sustainability 0/6 · clean
How does Global Payments compare with its peers?
0 of 3 measures sit above the median of the 39 other financial services stocks tracked here, 3 in the bottom third.
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 18% −4% ✕39th of 40
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 20.2% −9.2% ✕39th of 40
- Dividend yieldamong dividend payers · peer median 1.56% 1.13% ✕24th of 33
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and GPN doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: GPN has grown earnings per share at a solid clip over five years, is trading below what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth - his own "price is what you pay, value is what you get" test, not a fixed multiple ceiling, and trades at a reasonable multiple of owner earnings, his own term for the real cash a business could pay out. Where it comes up short: GPN isn't clearing the return-on-equity bar he'd want to see right now, and its five-year average return on equity falls short too, so this isn't just a one-off dip, carries more debt relative to equity than he typically tolerates, runs thinner pretax margins than he'd like to see, and doesn't cover its interest expense as comfortably as he'd want.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✕
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- Pretax margin > 15% ✕
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✓
- Interest coverage > 5x ✕
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✓
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✓
- Bonus: returning capital via buybacks FY2025
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and GPN falls short of his bar. In its favor: GPN is backing its growth up with real free cash flow. Where it comes up short: GPN fails his signature PEG test, he'd call this pricey for the growth on offer, is growing earnings outside the 10–25% range he considered the sustainable sweet spot, is leaning on more debt than he liked a growth story to carry, and is asking investors to pay a steep multiple for that growth.
- PEG < 1 ✕
- EPS growth 10%-25% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- P/E < 27 n/a
- Price/FCF < 30 ✓
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
Which of the 8 value filters does Global Payments pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $22.3B
- Trailing P/E < 25 n/a
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 2.38
- Price/Book < 8 0.97
- Price/Sales < 7 2.19
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% -95.2%
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is Global Payments' margin of safety?
A standard free-cash-flow DCF doesn't fit how financial services companies report cash flow.
Where is Global Payments in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Global Payments?
14,973,773 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with Global Payments? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case n/a (Financial Services)
- Short interest under 5% of float 6.8%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 3/6 passed
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Global Payments shareholders gained per year?
Earnings growth per share plus dividend.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from GPN's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do Global Payments' 10-year financials show?
From GPN's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 10 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about Global Payments
What kind of company is Global Payments?
Global Payments processes card payments for merchants of all sizes and sells point-of-sale systems and business software. Brands and businesses it owns include Heartland and Genius. This site groups it with Financial Services stocks.
Why does Global Payments have no margin of safety on this site?
This site's DCF values a company from its free cash flow, and that does not fit financial companies, whose operating cash flow swings with client money, loans and trading rather than with what is left over for owners. So GPN gets no margin of safety; judge it on the other checks on this page, such as its filters, shareholder yield and ranking against its peers. The method is in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does Global Payments pass?
GPN passes 2 of 8. It passes Price/Book < 8 (0.97) and Price/Sales < 7 (2.19). It misses Market Cap > $25B ($22.3B), PEG Ratio < 1.5 (2.38) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (-95.2%). Trailing P/E < 25, vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
How much cash does Global Payments return to shareholders?
GPN's net shareholder yield is +5.7%: the cash it returns through dividends and buybacks, minus stock-based compensation, as a share of its market value. Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 1.1% + buybacks 5.3% − stock comp 0.7%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 5 years its split-adjusted share count fell 19%. Its trailing dividend yield is 1.13%, paid out of 19% of its free cash flow; the dividend-sustainability check raises 0 of 6 flags. See Shareholder Yield Leaders and the Sustainable Dividend Screener.
When does Global Payments report earnings next?
Global Payments's next earnings report is expected on November 3, 2026 before the market opens, with analysts expecting earnings of $3.61 per share. Dates come from the Finnhub earnings calendar and can move. In its last 4 quarters it beat the estimate 1 time, by an average of +0.6%.
How heavily is Global Payments stock sold short?
As of September 30, 2026, 6.8% of GPN's float was sold short (14,973,773 shares, 5.9 days to cover), down 8.0% from the prior reporting period. FINRA publishes short interest twice a month, so it changes about every two weeks; this site flags anything above 5% of the float.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Global Payments's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 20, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this Global Payments Inc analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Global Payments Inc (GPN) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.