Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Sells 153 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lessened its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,554 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 153 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $578,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 10.3% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,136 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $840,000 after acquiring an additional 572 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Global Payments by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,942 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $539,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,288,788 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $176,366,000 after purchasing an additional 48,605 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 259.7% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 17,285 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,377,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the first quarter worth approximately $766,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Stock Down 0.6 %

Global Payments stock opened at $123.74 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $95.12 and a 1-year high of $141.77. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $131.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.00. The company has a market cap of $31.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 10.22%. The business’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is 26.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on GPN. B. Riley upped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. TheStreet raised Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $152.31.

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.