Investment House LLC Boosts Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Investment House LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 90.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,669 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 32,658 shares during the quarter. Investment House LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $8,721,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 407 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Global Payments Price Performance

Global Payments stock traded up $0.72 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $125.29. The stock had a trading volume of 1,278,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,138,989. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.22, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $95.12 and a 1-year high of $141.77. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $129.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.79.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on GPN. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.92.

Global Payments 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.