Duncan-Williams Gives Earnings Preview On Global Payments Inc

Global Payments GPN is scheduled to report its F3Q11 results on Thursday March, 31 after the close and hold a conference call at 5pm EST. Duncan Williams expects the company to report normalized EPS of $0.65, cash EPS of $0.72, revenues of $441.6mn, and an operating margin of 18.7%. Duncan Williams' normalized EPS estimate is $0.01 ahead of the First Call consensus. With FY11 a more back-end loaded year than usual, this quarter Duncan Williams thinks investors will be mostly be looking for management to reiterate its expectations for a strong F4Q11, which is predicated in part on improvements in the Canadian business, the back-end conversion in the U.K., and a strong quarter for GPN's charitable giving processing business. Assuming these are all on track, Duncan Williams thinks investors will be able to focus on the outlook for higher EPS growth in FY12. Duncan Williams $52 target is based on a 16x multiple on its calendar 2011 cash EPS estimate of $3.26. This multiple assumes some modest multiple contraction expansion over the next year since the stock is currently trading at 17x 2010 cash EPS estimate. GPN closed Tuesday at $47.57