JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sells 122,422 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 22.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 425,167 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 122,422 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 0.17% of Global Payments worth $47,644,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GPN. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Global Payments by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,949,458 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $330,516,000 after buying an additional 349,457 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC lifted its position in Global Payments by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $259,000 after buying an additional 206 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Global Payments by 106.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 50,705 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $5,682,000 after buying an additional 26,104 shares during the period. Focused Investors LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $99,969,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Global Payments by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,614,533 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $180,925,000 after buying an additional 72,992 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Global Payments from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Evercore ISI began coverage on Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday. They set an "in-line" rating and a $85.00 price target for the company. Stephens lowered Global Payments from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $130.52.

Global Payments Stock Performance

GPN stock traded down $5.55 during trading on Thursday, reaching $84.71. 461,229 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,259,629. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $77.83 and a 1-year high of $127.66. 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 company's fifty day moving average price is $99.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.89. The firm has a market cap of $20.83 billion, a PE ratio of 13.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.97.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. On average, research analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.