Montag & Caldwell LLC Sells 481 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Montag & Caldwell LLC cut its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,304 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 481 shares during the quarter. Montag & Caldwell LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $928,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. Marco Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 51,892 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,590,000 after acquiring an additional 2,345 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $631,000. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 52,484 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,665,000 after purchasing an additional 738 shares during the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Global Payments by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 29,842 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,790,000 after purchasing an additional 1,282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BIP Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 11,787 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,497,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on GPN. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $129.00 price target on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One investment 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 MarketBeat, Global Payments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Price Performance

NYSE:GPN traded up $0.69 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $125.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 825,425 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,130,374. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.79. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $95.12 and a twelve month high of $141.77. The company has a market capitalization of $31.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.22, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 10.22%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

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

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.