It's a boring name: Global Payments (NYSE:GPN). But last week, the company provided some excitement for investors as its stock price surged 13% to $44. Given some of its recent deals, that excitement's not over yet.
In the third-quarter earnings report, revenues increased 16% to $260.3 million. Net income was $41.5 million, or $0.51 per share, compared to last year's $30.7 million, or $0.38 per share.
Global Payments has been serving customers since 1967, but it's still growing at a rapid clip. Over the past six years, revenues have increased from $350 million to $908 million, and earnings per share have gone from $0.53 to $1.54.
The two key businesses for Global Payments are merchant services and money transfer. Merchant services include payment processing for debit and credit cards such as Visa and MasterCard (NYSE:MA)
The company provides consumer-to-consumer money transfers. The target market is mostly immigrant populations, sending money back to family members in foreign nations. To facilitate this business, Global Payment has more than 800 retail branches in the U.S. and 40 in Europe.
A key part of management's strategy is acquisitions. This has helped the company penetrate growth markets such as Eastern Europe. It recently purchased Diginet, a payment processor based in Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia.
Another critical deal is its joint venture with HSBC (NYSE:HBC), a 10-year marketing agreement in which HSBC refers merchant clients to Global Payments. Given the dynamics of these markets, the joint venture should be a long-term growth driver.
Thanks to these successful initiatives, the company inched up its full-year guidance to revenues of $1.06 billion to $1.08 billion. The company also forecasts earnings of $1.79 to $1.85 per share, comparing favorably to the previous guidance of $1.69 to $1.77.
It's also encouraging that, on the conference call, management announced plans to make investments that will help build a foundation for long-term growth. The company still sees a lot of growth in the future, yet it's also pleased the short-run (and short-sighted) needs of Wall Street. All in all, based on its track record, it's probably a strategy that should continue to work for shareholders.
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Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
