Global Payments (GPN) Competitors

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) and Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Is GPN or PAYX more profitable?

Paychex has a net margin of 32.02% compared to Global Payments' net margin of 15.54%. Paychex's return on equity of 45.28% beat Global Payments' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Payments	15.54%	12.21%	5.64%
Paychex	32.02%	45.28%	15.61%

Does the media prefer GPN or PAYX?

In the previous week, Paychex had 2 more articles in the media than Global Payments. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for Paychex and 33 mentions for Global Payments. Paychex's average media sentiment score of 1.31 beat Global Payments' score of 1.12 indicating that Paychex is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Global Payments	24 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Paychex	28 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend GPN or PAYX?

Global Payments currently has a consensus target price of $112.43, indicating a potential upside of 48.52%. Paychex has a consensus target price of $141.00, indicating a potential downside of 9.74%. Given Global Payments' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Global Payments is more favorable than Paychex.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Payments	1 Sell rating(s)	17 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.30
Paychex	2 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83

Which has higher earnings & valuation, GPN or PAYX?

Paychex has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Global Payments. Global Payments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Paychex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Payments	$10.10B	1.83	$1.57B	$6.20	12.21
Paychex	$5.44B	10.34	$1.69B	$4.80	32.55

Is GPN or PAYX a better dividend stock?

Global Payments pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Paychex pays an annual dividend of $4.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Global Payments pays out 16.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Paychex pays out 90.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Paychex has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Paychex is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in GPN or PAYX?

Global Payments received 764 more outperform votes than Paychex when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.46% of users gave Global Payments an outperform vote while only 41.33% of users gave Paychex an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Global Payments	Outperform Votes 1107 70.46%	Underperform Votes 464 29.54%
Paychex	Outperform Votes 343 41.33%	Underperform Votes 487 58.67%

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of GPN or PAYX?

89.8% of Global Payments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.5% of Paychex shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Global Payments shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.4% of Paychex shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, GPN or PAYX?

Global Payments has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Paychex has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Paychex beats Global Payments on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.