(Reuters) – Global Payments second-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates on Tuesday as robust consumer spending spurred strong growth in its merchant-focused business.
The Georgia-based payments technology firm reported a profit of $685.3 million, or $2.62 per share, for the three months ended June 30, excluding one-time costs. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $2.59, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Consumer spending has stayed strong even in the face of an economic slowdown on the back of strong wage growth and a tight labor market, while hopes of a pause in interest rate hikes as inflation subsides has further encouraged people to loosen their purse strings.
Robust spending has boosted the performance of payments tech providers such Global Payments whose fees are strongly correlated to spending volumes.
Merchant solutions, which provides payments services and software to businesses and is Global Payments’ biggest unit, reported a 17.3% growth in revenue.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
