California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 22,080 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 427,947 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 22,080 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.17% of Global Payments worth $47,956,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 50.4% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,256,238 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $140,774,000 after purchasing an additional 420,739 shares during the period. Allstate Corp purchased a new position in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $861,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in Global Payments by 374.2% during the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 569 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 449 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS grew its position in Global Payments by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 61,686 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $6,913,000 after buying an additional 4,050 shares during the period. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in Global Payments by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 18,695 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,095,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens downgraded shares of Global Payments from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com raised Global Payments from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America reduced their price target on Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $122.00 price objective (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $134.10.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN traded down $8.16 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $84.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,326,947 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,180,256. The stock has a market cap of $20.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.97. The business's 50-day moving average price is $102.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $106.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.50 and a 12 month high of $129.35.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. Sell-side analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Global Payments's payout ratio is 16.18%.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc provides payment technology and software solutions for card, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through two segments, Merchant Solutions and Issuer Solutions. The Merchant Solutions segment offers authorization, settlement and funding, customer support, chargeback resolution, terminal rental, sales and deployment, payment security, and consolidated billing and reporting services.