DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Grows Stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 10.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 68,277 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,370 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale's holdings in Global Payments were worth $6,874,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Global Payments by 194.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 6,423,463 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $621,149,000 after purchasing an additional 4,240,388 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,797,677 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $639,967,000 after buying an additional 12,196 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,957,914 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $189,307,000 after buying an additional 193,137 shares during the period. Davis Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Global Payments by 18.2% during the 2nd quarter. Davis Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,300,000 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $125,710,000 after acquiring an additional 200,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 188.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,728 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $109,857,000 after acquiring an additional 755,898 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna reissued a "positive" rating and set a $147.00 price target on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Monness Crespi & Hardt cut their price objective on Global Payments from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Global Payments from $164.00 to $156.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $136.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total value of $166,305.23. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at $2,068,087.63. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of GPN stock traded up $0.38 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $103.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,787,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,272,942. The stock has a market cap of $26.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.66, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $104.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.37. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $91.60 and a 52-week high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The business services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.03. Global Payments had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 11.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. Global Payments's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio is presently 19.84%.

Global Payments 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.