Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Stock Holdings Raised by LPL Financial LLC

LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 34.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 126,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 32,498 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $14,168,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 25.0% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $929,969,000 after buying an additional 1,659,984 shares during the last quarter. Focused Investors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $99,969,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Global Payments by 1,559.6% during the fourth 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% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth $53,700,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GPN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stephens lowered Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price target (down previously from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a report on Thursday, January 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.10.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN opened at $98.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $103.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $107.16. The company has a market capitalization of $24.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.91, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $90.99 and a twelve month high of $129.35.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its 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). The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. As a group, analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 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.