Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-eight analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $110.91.

GPN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Wolfe Research restated a “peer perform” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Global Payments from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, April 21st.

Global Payments Stock Performance

GPN opened at $75.76 on Wednesday. Global Payments has a 52-week low of $65.93 and a 52-week high of $120.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $80.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.80.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.73 by $0.09. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.59 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Global Payments will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is currently 16.13%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AIA Group Ltd purchased a new position in Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at $349,000. Oribel Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 495.1% in the 4th quarter. Oribel Capital Management LP now owns 521,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $58,417,000 after purchasing an additional 433,700 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $259,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 106.1% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 50,705 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,682,000 after purchasing an additional 26,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focused Investors LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at $99,969,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

About Global Payments

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.