Norges Bank Takes $345.82 Million Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Norges Bank bought a new stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 3,086,055 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $345,823,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $929,969,000 after acquiring an additional 1,659,984 shares during the period. Focused Investors LLC acquired a new stake in Global Payments during the 4th quarter worth $99,969,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Global Payments by 1,559.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 548,833 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $61,502,000 after purchasing an additional 515,763 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 22.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $271,090,000 after purchasing an additional 490,411 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter valued at about $53,700,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of Global Payments stock opened at $97.55 on Friday. Global Payments Inc. has a 1 year low of $90.99 and a 1 year high of $133.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $103.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $107.34. The company has a market capitalization of $23.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America lowered their price target on Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays cut their price target on Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price target (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Stephens cut shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.33.

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.