Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $137.65.

GPN has been the subject of several recent research reports. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Global Payments from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Global Payments from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total value of $166,305.23. Following the completion of 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in Global Payments by 194.2% during the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 6,423,463 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $621,149,000 after buying an additional 4,240,388 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,797,677 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $639,967,000 after acquiring an additional 12,196 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 10.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 193,137 shares during the last quarter. Davis Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 18.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Global Payments by 188.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,728 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $109,857,000 after purchasing an additional 755,898 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Stock Up 2.7 %

Shares of GPN stock opened at $101.76 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $25.97 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s fifty day moving average is $105.15 and its 200-day moving average is $104.55. Global Payments has a 1 year low of $91.60 and a 1 year high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The business services provider reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.32 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.48 earnings per share. Global Payments’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Global Payments will post 11.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is 19.84%.

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.