Cannell & Spears LLC lessened its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 11.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,334 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 2,597 shares during the quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC's holdings in Global Payments were worth $2,279,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth approximately $345,823,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments by 25.0% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $929,969,000 after acquiring an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Focused Investors LLC bought a new stake in Global Payments in the fourth quarter valued at about $99,969,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 1,559.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 548,833 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $61,502,000 after acquiring an additional 515,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 22.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $271,090,000 after purchasing an additional 490,411 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America lowered their target price on Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised Global Payments from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating and set a $122.00 price objective (down previously from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Stephens lowered Global Payments from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $134.10.
Get Our Latest Analysis on GPN
Global Payments Stock Performance
Shares of GPN stock traded down $8.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $84.82. 6,326,947 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,180,256. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.50 and a fifty-two week high of $129.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $102.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $106.79.
Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. Analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Global Payments Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio is currently 16.18%.
About Global Payments
(
Free Report)
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.
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