Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Stake Trimmed by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA reduced its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,976,595 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 5,901 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 0.78% of Global Payments worth $221,497,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GPN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Global Payments by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,995,107 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,800,952,000 after buying an additional 179,195 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments by 25.0% during the fourth 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,230,322 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $696,362,000 after buying an additional 301,877 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Global Payments by 1.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $564,437,000 after purchasing an additional 83,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $345,823,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GPN. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $85.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $122.00 price target (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Stephens downgraded Global Payments from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $130.52.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Global Payments stock traded up $11.08 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $90.55. 4,636,388 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,223,358. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $77.83 and a fifty-two week high of $127.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $22.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.65, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $99.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.89.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last posted 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). Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. 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 1.10%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.18%.

Global Payments Company Profile

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.