International Assets Investment Management LLC Purchases New Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 21,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,774,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GPN. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,525,000 after buying an additional 2,703,434 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Global Payments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $261,300,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Global Payments by 338.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $379,416,000 after acquiring an additional 2,537,941 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Global Payments during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $197,875,000. Finally, Boston Partners increased its holdings in Global Payments by 40.5% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,613,000 after acquiring an additional 1,481,714 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GPN. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group upped 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. B. Riley increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of Global Payments stock opened at $122.16 on Friday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $130.61 and a 200 day moving average of $124.19. The firm has a market cap of $31.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.32, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.96. Global Payments Inc. has a 1 year low of $95.12 and a 1 year high of $141.77.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 11.44%. Global Payments’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. 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.