Paymentus Holdings, Inc. ( PAY ) shares are trading higher Tuesday after the company posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

The Details:

The company reported quarterly earnings of 11 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 7 cents per share Monday after the bell.  

Quarterly sales clocked in at $164.8 million which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $157.416 million and is a 24.68% increase over last year. The company processed 124.8 million transactions in the quarter, up 28.4% from last year.

Goldman Sachs maintained its Neutral rating on the stock and raised its price target from $18 to $20 following the print. The firm highlighted the company’s expansion into larger billers and increased contribution from newer verticals and expects Paymentus ( PAY ) to deliver strong performance as the payments market shifts toward biller direct models.

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PAY Stock Forecast 2030:

Predicting the future in stock prices over long periods of time is challenging. Wall Street analysts use complex models that take into account interest rates, economic growth, competitive advantages, management teams and historical profitability, among a host of other factors.

If, as an investor, you want to assume most of the major factors remain stable, you can use trend analysis as a helpful tool. Using a longer term trend line or historical performance of the stock, you can aim to forecast a stock's annual rate of return.

For Paymentus Holdings ( PAY ) , over the past 5 years, it's annualized stock performance is -10.59%, and if you assume that trend continues for another 5 years, you can expect a stock to trade at $11.46.

Using a trend line (see how to perform this function here), If you choose to use a trend line, connect your two points and look into the future to the point in time in which you're curious. Once you've identified that stock price, you may want to consider what type of conditions would need to exist for the stock to justify the share price – be it an outside influence or managerial decision making.

PAY Price Action: According to Benzinga Pro, Paymentus ( PAY ) shares are up 27.7% at $20.88 at the time of publication.

Image: Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay