Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Price Target Lowered to $125.00 at Stephens

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) had its price target reduced by Stephens from $130.00 to $125.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has an overweight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on GPN. Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased their price target on Global Payments from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Global Payments from $126.00 to $122.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Global Payments from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Barclays cut their price objective on Global Payments from $145.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $147.00 price objective on shares of Global Payments in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $138.82.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of GPN opened at $102.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $26.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $105.89 and a 200-day moving average of $105.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Global Payments has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The business services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.93% and a net margin of 14.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Global Payments will post 11.07 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 19.84%.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total value of $166,305.23. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,068,087.63. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in Global Payments by 194.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 6,423,463 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $621,149,000 after purchasing an additional 4,240,388 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in Global Payments by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,797,677 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $639,967,000 after purchasing an additional 12,196 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Global Payments by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,957,914 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $189,307,000 after purchasing an additional 193,137 shares during the last quarter. Davis Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Global Payments by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. Davis Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,300,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $125,710,000 after purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Global Payments by 188.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,728 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $109,857,000 after purchasing an additional 755,898 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.