Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC Takes Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,963 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Global Payments during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Clear Street Markets LLC bought a new position in Global Payments during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Global Payments during the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC bought a new position in Global Payments during the 3rd quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in Global Payments by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 407 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on GPN. Wedbush raised their price target on Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Susquehanna raised their price target on Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group raised their price target on Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.31.

Global Payments Price Performance

Global Payments stock opened at $123.74 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $131.68 and its 200 day moving average is $124.05. 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 $31.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $95.12 and a one year high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 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 analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 10.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

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