XTX Topco Ltd Buys New Stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 4,507 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $505,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 179,195 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,230,322 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $696,362,000 after acquiring an additional 301,877 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $564,437,000 after acquiring an additional 83,481 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $345,823,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on GPN. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Global Payments from $145.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Williams Trading set a $75.00 target price on Global Payments in a research note on Friday, April 18th. Citigroup reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Monday. 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. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $80.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $114.86.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.7 %

GPN traded up $0.47 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $71.86. 4,298,394 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,382,913. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $17.67 billion, a PE ratio of 11.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.97. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $65.93 and a one year high of $127.66. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $94.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.52.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Global Payments's payout ratio 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.