Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Trading Down 3%

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) traded down 3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $129.90 and last traded at $130.18. 687,695 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 2,353,173 shares. The stock had previously closed at $134.19.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. B. Riley upped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $162.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Up 1.4 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $132.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $123.60. The company has a market cap of $34.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. Global Payments had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.46%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Global Payments by 60.5% during the 3rd quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 19,593 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,261,000 after acquiring an additional 7,387 shares during the last quarter. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. boosted its stake in Global Payments by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 99,276 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,455,000 after acquiring an additional 12,560 shares during the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Global Payments by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 3,112 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,980,048 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $379,777,000 after buying an additional 76,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 148.4% in the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 491,320 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $56,693,000 after buying an additional 293,550 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.