Fidelity National Information Services is carrying $21.2 billion in total debt after its acquisition of the Total Issuing Solutions business from Global Payments and the sale of its remaining 45% Worldpay stake, and management has publicly committed to a target of approximately 2.8x gross leverage. That ratio, not the payout ratio, is the gatekeeper for when dividends grow and buybacks resume, since dollars used to pay down debt are unavailable for shareholder returns. FIS cut its quarterly dividend from $0.52 in 2023 to $0.36 in 2024 following the Worldpay separation, then climbed back to $0.40 in 2025 and $0.44 in 2026, a 10% increase approved by the Board in January that gives an annualized forward payout of $1.76. Buybacks have already slowed sharply, with $42 million in the second quarter compared with $301 million in Q3 25 and $291 million in Q4 25, and tuck-in M&A is on hold. Pro forma gross leverage stood at 3.4x post-close, and CFO James Kehoe said on the Q2 call that the leverage ratio decreased 3.5 times while the company returned $270 million to shareholders, primarily through dividends. Dividend-per-share growth is targeted to track adjusted EPS growth, guided at 7.0-8.5% for 2026, against trailing twelve-month free cash flow of $2.2 billion and Q2 2026 dividends paid of roughly $228 million, while shares are down 46.67% year to date.
Fidelity National Information Services IncFIS ties dividend growth and buyback resumption to hitting its ~2.8x gross leverage target after $21.2B debt from the Total Issuing Solutions deal and Worldpay stake sale, with buybacks already slowed and M&A on hold.
Global Payments Inc