Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.99 Million in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 15,700 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,994,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the third quarter worth approximately $47,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on GPN. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Trading Down 0.4 %

GPN opened at $122.95 on Thursday. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $95.12 and a 12 month high of $141.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.53, a PEG ratio of 0.79 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. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $130.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $124.21.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

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

Global Payments Company 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.