Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) today announced results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019.

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“2019 is off to a terrific start as we delivered double digit growth in the first quarter, demonstrating the ongoing durability and resiliency of our differentiated business model,” said Jeff Sloan, Chief Executive Officer. “We continue to expand our competitive moat through a balanced technology-enabled strategy across multiple vertical markets, virtual and physical payment worlds and faster growth geographies.”

“The success of these investments is clearly evident in our largest target addressable markets, such as restaurants and food service, in which our payment and software capabilities span the full spectrum of merchant sizes and provide our customers with end-to-end technology solutions to better manage their businesses,” Sloan continued.

First Quarter 2019 Summary

• GAAP revenues were $883.0 million, compared to $795.0 million in the first quarter of 2018; diluted earnings per share were $0.71 compared to $0.57 in the prior year; and operating margin was 22.6% compared to 19.6% in 2018.
• Adjusted net revenue plus network fees grew 12.9% to $1.043 billion, compared to $924.3 million in 2018.
• Adjusted earnings per share grew 18.6% to $1.34, compared to $1.13 in 2018.
• Adjusted operating margin expanded 110 basis points to 31.5%.

2019 Outlook

“We are pleased with the outstanding financial results we delivered for the first quarter, despite the impact of adverse foreign currency exchange rates,” stated Cameron Bready, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “This strong execution and performance provides us with confidence in our increased financial outlook for the full year. The company now expects adjusted net revenue plus network fees to range from $4.44 billion to $4.49 billion, reflecting growth of 12% to 13%, or 14% to 15% on a constant currency basis, over 2018 results and adjusted earnings per share to be in a range of $5.95 to $6.12, reflecting growth of 15% to 18% over 2018. Annual adjusted operating margin for 2019 is now expected to expand by up to 80 basis points.”

Capital Allocation

Global Payments’ Board of Directors approved a dividend of $0.01 per share payable June 28, 2019 to shareholders of record as of June 14, 2019.

Conference Call

Global Payments’ management will host a conference call today, May 2, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. ET to discuss financial results and business highlights. Callers may access the conference call via the investor relations page of the company’s website at www.globalpaymentsinc.com; or callers in North America may dial 877-674-6428 and callers outside North America may dial 970-315-0457. A replay of the call will be archived on the company’s website within two hours of the live call.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Global Payments supplemented revenues, income, operating income and earnings per share information determined in accordance with GAAP by providing those measures on an adjusted basis, and other measures, in this earnings release to assist with evaluating performance. In addition to GAAP measures, management uses these non-GAAP measures to focus on the factors the company believes are pertinent to the daily management of our operations.

Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure are included in the schedules to this release.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) is a leading worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions delivering innovative services to our customers globally. Our technologies, services and employee expertise enable us to provide a broad range of solutions that allow our customers to accept all payment types and operate their businesses more efficiently across a variety of distribution channels in many markets around the world.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with approximately 11,000 employees worldwide, Global Payments is a member of the S&P 500 with customers and partners in 32 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil. For more information about Global Payments, our Service. Driven. Commerce brand and our technologies, please visit www.globalpaymentsinc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement and comments made by Global Payments’ management during the conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning our business operations, economic performance and financial condition, including in particular: our business strategy and means to implement the strategy, measures of future results of operations, such as revenues, expenses, operating margins, income tax rates, and earnings per share and other operating metrics; our success and timing in developing and introducing new services and expanding our business; statements about the benefits of our acquisitions, including future financial and operating results, the combined company’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, and the successful integration of our acquisitions, and other statements that are not historical facts. You can sometimes identify forward-looking statements by our use of the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plan,” “forecast,” “guidance” and similar expressions. For these statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Although we believe that the plans and expectations reflected in or suggested by our forward-looking statements are reasonable, those statements are based on a number of assumptions, estimates, projections or plans that are inherently subject to significant risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, cannot be foreseen and reflect future business decisions that are subject to change. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee you that our plans and expectations will be achieved. Our actual revenues, revenue growth rates and margins, other results of operations and shareholder values could differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements as a result of many known and unknown factors, many of which are beyond our ability to predict or control. Important factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated by such forward-looking statements include our ability to safeguard our data; increased competition from larger companies and non-traditional competitors; our ability to update our services in a timely manner; our ability to maintain Visa and Mastercard registration and financial institution sponsorship; our reliance on financial institutions to provide clearing services in connection with our settlement activities; our potential failure to comply with card network requirements; potential systems interruptions or failures; software defects or undetected errors; increased attrition of merchants, referral partners or independent sales organizations; our ability to increase our share of existing markets and expand into new markets; development of market trends and technologies; a decline in the use of cards for payment generally; unanticipated increases in chargeback liability; increases in credit card network fees; changes in laws, regulations or network rules or interpretations thereof; foreign currency exchange and interest rate risks; political, economic and regulatory changes in the foreign countries in which we operate; future performance, integration and conversion of acquired operations, including without limitation difficulties and delays in integrating or fully realizing cost savings and other benefits of our acquisitions at all or within the expected time period; fully realizing anticipated annual interest expense savings from refinancing our corporate debt facilities; our loss of key personnel and other risk factors presented in Item 1- Risk Factors of our Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and any subsequent SEC filings, which we advise you to review. These cautionary statements qualify all of our forward-looking statements, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and should not be relied upon as representing our plans and expectations as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update or revise forward-looking statements at some time in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to our forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

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See Schedules 6 and 7 for a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure to the most comparable GAAP measure and Schedule 8 for a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures.

See Schedules 6 and 7 for a reconciliation of adjusted net revenue, adjusted net revenue plus network fees and adjusted operating income by segment to the most comparable GAAP measures and Schedule 8 for a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

Global Payments supplements revenues, income and EPS information determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP by providing these measures, and other measures, with certain adjustments (such measures being non-GAAP financial measures) in this document to assist with evaluating our performance. In addition to GAAP measures, management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to focus on the factors the company believes are pertinent to the daily management of our operations. Management believes adjusted net revenue and adjusted net revenue plus network fees more closely reflect the economic benefits to the company’s core business and, in the case of adjusted net revenue, allows for better comparisons with industry peers. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures, together with other metrics, to set goals for and measure the performance of the business and to determine incentive compensation. Adjusted net revenue, adjusted net revenue plus network fees, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income and adjusted EPS should be considered in addition to, and not as substitutes for, revenues, operating income, net income and EPS determined in accordance with GAAP. The non-GAAP financial measures reflect management’s judgment of particular items, and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

Adjusted net revenue excludes gross-up related payments associated with certain lines of business to reflect economic benefits to the company. On a GAAP basis, these payments are presented gross in both revenues and operating expenses. Adjusted operating income, adjusted net income and adjusted EPS exclude acquisition-related amortization expense, share-based compensation and certain other items specific to each reporting period as more fully described in the accompanying reconciliations in Schedules 6 and 7. Adjusted operating margin is derived by dividing adjusted operating income by adjusted net revenue plus network fees. The tax rate used in determining the net income impact of earnings adjustments is either the jurisdictional statutory rate in effect at the time of the adjustment or the jurisdictional expected annual effective tax rate for the period, depending on the nature and timing of the adjustment.

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