American Century Companies Inc. Trims Stock Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

American Century Companies Inc. trimmed its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 25.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 174,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 60,394 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $19,533,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Global Payments by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $929,969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Global Payments by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,928,445 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $605,078,000 after buying an additional 31,934 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 1.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $564,437,000 after acquiring an additional 83,481 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,949,458 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $330,516,000 after acquiring an additional 349,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 22.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $271,090,000 after acquiring an additional 490,411 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPN has been the topic of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price objective (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Barclays dropped their price target on Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Stephens cut Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com raised Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.33.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN opened at $97.55 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $103.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $107.32. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $90.99 and a 52 week high of $133.63. The stock has a market cap of $23.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.79, a PEG 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 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.14). Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Global Payments Company Profile

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.