Foster & Motley Inc. Makes New $402,000 Investment in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Foster & Motley Inc. bought a new stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,163 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. North Star Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Global Payments by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. now owns 232,529 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,531,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in Global Payments by 73.0% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 60,246 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,651,000 after purchasing an additional 25,414 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 42.0% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 28,998 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,683,000 after buying an additional 8,575 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in Global Payments by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 25,648 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,257,000 after buying an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 44,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,602,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GPN. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $129.00 price objective on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wedbush increased their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $137.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their target price on Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE GPN opened at $127.47 on Thursday. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $95.12 and a 1-year high of $141.77. The company has a market capitalization of $32.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.72, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $129.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. Global Payments had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.46%.

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.