Global Payments reported a strong Q1 2026, with revenue, EPS, and operating margin all coming in ahead of expectations, driven by successful early integration of WorldPay and accelerating momentum for its Genius platform. Management reaffirmed its full-year guidance and highlighted significant cross-sell wins and strategic positioning in AI-commerce. FY26 Q1 revenue was $2.86B, up 5.5% normalized, with adjusted EPS of $2.99.
Global Payments reported a strong Q1 2026, with revenue, EPS, and operating margin all coming in ahead of expectations, driven by successful early integration of WorldPay and accelerating momentum for its Genius platform. Management reaffirmed its full-year guidance and highlighted significant cross-sell wins and strategic positioning in AI-commerce. FY26 Q1 revenue was $2.86B, up 5.5% normalized, with adjusted EPS of $2.99.
Global Payments reported a strong Q1 2026, with revenue, EPS, and operating margin all coming in ahead of expectations, driven by successful early integration of WorldPay and accelerating momentum for its Genius platform. Management reaffirmed its full-year guidance and…
FY26 Q1 revenue was $2.86B, up 5.5% normalized, with adjusted EPS of $2.99.
Reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance: ~5% constant-currency revenue growth, EPS of $13.80-$14.00.
Early WorldPay integration is exceeding expectations, with the 'best of both' approach on technology and products leading to quick cross-sell wins like Subway (Genius software).
Management described AI as a core strategic focus with three vectors: agentic commerce, embedding AI into products (e.g., Genius, FraudSight), and internal productivity gains. They are activating merchants on Google's UCP protocol and have a production-ready payments model context protocol to enable agent-driven commerce, with Ravelin advancing agentic risk capabilities.
GPN reaffirmed its full-year guidance while noting a strong first-quarter performance, exceeding expectations and citing successful execution on the WorldPay integration and Genius momentum.
Capex remains around $1 billion, or 8% of adjusted net revenue for 2026, funding innovation and AI initiatives. The company highlighted investments in the Genius platform and technology infrastructure to support integration and product velocity.
Management repeatedly emphasized strong execution, early integration wins, and confidence in achieving synergy targets, while acknowledging transitory headwinds from the Middle East conflict and tax payment volumes.
“WorldPay's U.S. direct sales force began selling Genius almost immediately following the close... Subway is a great example. Already a WorldPay client, Subway recently selected our Genius kitchen management software deployment across appro…”
“OpenAI's shift in focus towards AI-driven product discovery and traffic generation, while intentionally leaving checkout, payments, risk, and settlement with us, plays directly to our strengths and strategy....we are currently activating s…”
“what I think that means is not just cross-sales in the traditional sense where we're bringing new value-added services to back book clients, but really the bundled selling of genius that targets a robust set of core capabilities, but then…”
“we moved quickly to integrate WorldPay's e-commerce solution into Global Payment's SMB distribution channels. The results have been compelling, with new sales increasing 25% sequentially and more than doubling year over year”
“our own payments model context protocol is live and production ready. It enables in-agent driven commerce flows with minimal incremental development effort... Through our proprietary FastTrack Studio platform, we are standardizing the path…”
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capex | FY2026 | $1B | $1B | MAINTAINED |
| EPS | FY2026 | $13.80–$14.00 | $13.90 | MAINTAINED |
| Free cash flow | FY2026 | 90% | 90% | MAINTAINED |
| Op margin | FY2026 | 150% | 150% | MAINTAINED |
| Revenue | FY2026 | 5% | 5% | MAINTAINED |
Bojangles is adopting GPN's digital menu solutions for its corporate stores, further deepening the relationship.
“And Bojangles purchased our digital menu solutions for its corporate-owned stores, expanding our long-standing relationship.”
… from our merchant dashboard and supported by an AI content generation tool. Together, our investments drove several notable wins this quarter. In the Americas, CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc. selected Genius as its exclusive U.S. point-of-sale software and will also use Global Payments as its in-store payments provider for its iconic Hardee's and Carl's Jr. brands, deploying our solutions across more than 2,400 corporate and franchise locations. And Bojangles purchased our digital menu solutions for its corporate-owned stores, expanding our long-standing relationship. Across EMEA, we secured several major wins. In Spain, we won sporting goods retailer Decathlon and grocery store chain Lidl. In Poland, we signed electric vehicle charging station provider Elzav Ecopower and parking solution provider DG Park. In the Czech Republic, we signed home equipment retailer Toscoma. And lastly, in Greece, we won the large supermarket change Skavenites. In Asia Pacific, we were pleased to be selected by KFC and Pizza Hut. We also continued our successful penetration of the hospitality vertical, extending our relationship with Marriott across the region. And we expanded our position in …
Morrisons is ramping volumes rapidly with GPN, strengthening GPN's position in the UK grocery vertical.
“In addition, Morrison's, a leading supermarket chain and recent signing in the UK, is also ramping their volumes with us, and we expect to have their full migration live this quarter.”
… services, we had meaningful wins with AutoBooks and a large multinational content-driven technology company. and we continue to be a leading provider in the grocery vertical. This quarter, Aldi Sued selected us across both North America and EMEA. Reflecting the strength of our service model, we expect Aldi to begin onboarding volumes as early as the second quarter, an impressive timeline for a retailer of their scale. In addition, Morrison's, a leading supermarket chain and recent signing in the UK, is also ramping their volumes with us, and we expect to have their full migration live this quarter. Lastly, Brazilian cosmetics retailer, Gould Cosméticos, is another notable Q1 signing that we expect to have live before the end of Q2. Turning to the integrated and platforms channel, we continue to invest in geographic expansion. Integrated payments relationships are more commonplace in the US, but we are still developing in most other countries, and we are moving quickly to capture this opportunity. In fact, 20% of the new partners we signed in the first quarter are outside the U.S., demonstrating our ability to scale capabilities across new geographies. We recently expanded …
Winning the Spanish operations of Decathlon and Lidl is a significant multi-vertical area of growth for GPN in EMEA.
… Americas, CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc. selected Genius as its exclusive U.S. point-of-sale software and will also use Global Payments as its in-store payments provider for its iconic Hardee's and Carl's Jr. brands, deploying our solutions across more than 2,400 corporate and franchise locations. And Bojangles purchased our digital menu solutions for its corporate-owned stores, expanding our long-standing relationship. Across EMEA, we secured several major wins. In Spain, we won sporting goods retailer Decathlon and grocery store chain Lidl. In Poland, we signed electric vehicle charging station provider Elzav Ecopower and parking solution provider DG Park. In the Czech Republic, we signed home equipment retailer Toscoma. And lastly, in Greece, we won the large supermarket change Skavenites. In Asia Pacific, we were pleased to be selected by KFC and Pizza Hut. We also continued our successful penetration of the hospitality vertical, extending our relationship with Marriott across the region. And we expanded our position in transportation with a leading ride-hailing company, further validating the strength and scalability of our global platform. Turning to Genius, we continue to …
Securing KFC and Pizza Hut in the APAC region continues to validate GPN's flagship restaurant vertical.
… menu solutions for its corporate-owned stores, expanding our long-standing relationship. Across EMEA, we secured several major wins. In Spain, we won sporting goods retailer Decathlon and grocery store chain Lidl. In Poland, we signed electric vehicle charging station provider Elzav Ecopower and parking solution provider DG Park. In the Czech Republic, we signed home equipment retailer Toscoma. And lastly, in Greece, we won the large supermarket change Skavenites. In Asia Pacific, we were pleased to be selected by KFC and Pizza Hut. We also continued our successful penetration of the hospitality vertical, extending our relationship with Marriott across the region. And we expanded our position in transportation with a leading ride-hailing company, further validating the strength and scalability of our global platform. Turning to Genius, we continue to see strong momentum as we expand its footprint, deepen its capabilities, and extend its relevance across an increasingly broad set of use cases and geographies. Genius bookings increase more than 25% sequentially and nearly double year-over-year. In addition to accelerating bookings growth, yields with new clients increase by …
Extending the Marriott relationship in the APAC region reinforces GPN's position in the hospitality sector.
… EMEA, we secured several major wins. In Spain, we won sporting goods retailer Decathlon and grocery store chain Lidl. In Poland, we signed electric vehicle charging station provider Elzav Ecopower and parking solution provider DG Park. In the Czech Republic, we signed home equipment retailer Toscoma. And lastly, in Greece, we won the large supermarket change Skavenites. In Asia Pacific, we were pleased to be selected by KFC and Pizza Hut. We also continued our successful penetration of the hospitality vertical, extending our relationship with Marriott across the region. And we expanded our position in transportation with a leading ride-hailing company, further validating the strength and scalability of our global platform. Turning to Genius, we continue to see strong momentum as we expand its footprint, deepen its capabilities, and extend its relevance across an increasingly broad set of use cases and geographies. Genius bookings increase more than 25% sequentially and nearly double year-over-year. In addition to accelerating bookings growth, yields with new clients increase by more than 30% year-over-year, reflecting the growing value new clients see in Genius, and they're …
Winning the card-acquiring business for a large national retailer like Abercrombie & Fitch confirms GPN's competitive strength in the enterprise vertical.
… facilitate payments in 175 countries, creating a powerful platform for continued global expansion. On a combined company basis, bookings increased 8% year over year, an excellent start, particularly given that we were still finalizing our new go-to-market channels. Beginning with the enterprise channel, we delivered strong new sales performance, particularly across North America and Asia Pacific. We had several notable wins this quarter, starting with Abercrombie & Fitch & Company, where we signed a long-term agreement to serve as their acquirer for card-based payments in the U.S. Household brands like this continue to choose global payments for our differentiated service model, innovative solutions, and consultative approach. Within software and information services, we had meaningful wins with AutoBooks and a large multinational content-driven technology company. and we continue to be a leading provider in the grocery vertical. This quarter, Aldi Sued selected us across both North America and EMEA. Reflecting the strength of our service model, we expect Aldi to begin onboarding volumes as early as the second quarter, an impressive timeline for a retailer of their scale. In …
In response to OpenAI's strategic shift toward discovery, Global Payments is positioning itself as crucial for checkout, payments, risk, and settlement in the emerging agentic commerce ecosystem, and is already integrating merchants into Google's UCP protocol. — This highlights GPN's strategic partnership role in the AI-commerce space, making it a key infrastructure player as agentic shopping becomes a reality.
… and strategy. It elevates the importance of our trusted, scalable payments infrastructure and positions global payments as essential connective tissue between agents, merchants, networks, and consumers. We are uniquely positioned to shape this emerging channel, anchored in our decades of payments expertise and scaled data-driven insights. We are protocol agnostic and prioritize advocating on behalf of our clients. In fact, we are currently activating several enterprise merchants into Google's UCP protocol so that they can be among the first to provide agentic shopping experiences for their customers. We're simultaneously creating end-to-end modular flows with multiple players across the ecosystem, including commerce platforms, checkout partners, and middleware developers to ensure that we can support our clients across any configuration as protocols and use cases evolve. Further, our own payments model context protocol is live and production ready. It enables in-agent driven commerce flows with minimal incremental development effort. As agents increasingly initiate transactions autonomously, trust, identity, and risk management become even more crucial. Through Ravelin, …
In response to OpenAI's strategic shift toward discovery, Global Payments is positioning itself as crucial for checkout, payments, risk, and settlement in the emerging agentic commerce ecosystem, and is already integrating merchants into Google's UCP protocol. — This highlights GPN's strategic partnership role in the AI-commerce space, making it a key infrastructure player as agentic shopping becomes a reality.
… pillar of our growth strategy, and we are highly confident in its ability to drive incremental revenue, deepen client relationships, and create durable long-term value for global payments. Lastly, our work in agentic commerce and artificial intelligence continues to accelerate, and recent developments across the AI ecosystem reinforce the critical role we play at the center of the next evolution in commerce. OpenAI's shift in focus towards AI-driven product discovery and traffic generation, while intentionally leaving checkout, payments, risk, and settlement with us, plays directly to our strengths and strategy. It elevates the importance of our trusted, scalable payments infrastructure and positions global payments as essential connective tissue between agents, merchants, networks, and consumers. We are uniquely positioned to shape this emerging channel, anchored in our decades of payments expertise and scaled data-driven insights. We are protocol agnostic and prioritize advocating on behalf of our clients. In fact, we are currently activating several enterprise merchants into Google's UCP protocol so that they can be among the first to provide agentic shopping experiences …