Should You Keep on Holding Your Global Payments (GPN) Position?

Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Mid Cap Fund’ fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -0.72% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTMX, -0.68% by its Advisor Class: APDMX, and -0.66% by its Institutional Class: APHMX, in the fourth quarter of 2021, all underperforming the Russell Midcap® Growth Index that delivered a 2.85% return, and the Russell Midcap® Index that was up by 6.44% for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Artisan Mid Cap Fund, in its Q4 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 $38.9 billion market capitalization. GPN delivered a 1.07% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -29.64%. The stock closed at $136.62 per share on February 22, 2022.

Here is what Artisan Mid Cap Fund has to say about Global Payments Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Global Payments was another notable drag on Q4 performance. We wouldn’t say the company’s profit cycle has faltered of late—they appear likely to deliver 14%-15% top-line and 27%-28% profit growth this year (vs. -5% and 4% in 2020). Investors may have expected even more growth in early 2021, but stubborn pandemic pressures remain in certain geographies and categories of consumer spending. However, we think most of the stock’s decline has been due to fears about emerging competitive pressures from new payments technology upstarts (discussed in prior letters). Given our belief the company can continue to sustain solid growth in the coming years despite competitive entrants—management is projecting 17%-20% EPS growth in 2022—we view the stock’s deeply discounted multiple as attractive, and we have maintained our position.”

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Our calculations show that Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. GPN was in 67 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 68 funds in the previous quarter. Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) delivered an 8.49% return in the past 3 months.

In February 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on GPN in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

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