Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC Sells 212 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 4.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 4,111 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 212 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $549,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GPN. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 524 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Global Payments by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,752 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $687,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,930 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its stake in Global Payments by 30.9% during the first quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 453 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GPN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Susquehanna decreased their price target on Global Payments from $160.00 to $157.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $160.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $143.00 to $128.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $145.32.

Global Payments Stock Performance

GPN traded up $0.29 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $101.86. 58,578 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,286,656. The firm has a market cap of $26.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $91.60 and a one year high of $141.77. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $98.25 and its 200 day moving average is $117.15.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.07. Global Payments had a net margin of 13.40% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The company had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.17 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.84%.

Insider Transactions at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, VP Andrea M. Carter sold 3,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.34, for a total transaction of $367,422.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 25,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,770.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.