GAMMA Investing LLC Makes New Investment in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,791 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GPN. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Global Payments by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. grew its stake in Global Payments by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $687,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its stake in Global Payments by 2.0% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,707 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in Global Payments by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,828,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KB Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in Global Payments by 2.9% during the third quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of GPN opened at $124.63 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $129.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $124.58. Global Payments Inc. has a 1 year low of $95.12 and a 1 year high of $141.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $31.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 26.46%.

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.