Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Cut to Hold at TD Cowen

TD Cowen cut shares of Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Global Payments from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Global Payments from $79.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Wolfe Research reiterated a “peer perform” rating on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nineteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $112.21.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN opened at $89.9510 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $85.91. Global Payments has a twelve month low of $65.93 and a twelve month high of $120.00.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.47% and a net margin of 15.07%.The company’s revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Global Payments will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.48%.

Insider Transactions at Global Payments

In related news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $172,000.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares in the company, valued at $2,641,318. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Global Payments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 32.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,050,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $884,462,000 after buying an additional 2,716,156 shares during the period. Glenview Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC now owns 4,316,892 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $345,524,000 after buying an additional 523,209 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Global Payments in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $273,844,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,906,444 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $325,698,000 after buying an additional 259,590 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,730,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $305,977,000 after buying an additional 305,987 shares during the period. 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.