Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. Buys Shares of 13,179 Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 13,179 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,095,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GPN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 2nd quarter valued at $273,844,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in Global Payments by 32.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,050,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $884,462,000 after acquiring an additional 2,716,156 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Global Payments by 480.7% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,074,669 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $86,017,000 after purchasing an additional 889,590 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 99.5% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,124,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $89,820,000 after purchasing an additional 560,936 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 205.6% during the second quarter. Natixis now owns 778,204 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $62,287,000 after purchasing an additional 523,555 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In related news, EVP David M. Sheffield sold 2,016 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total value of $164,122.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 14,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,175,397.58. This trade represents a 12.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. purchased 10,392 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $81.42 per share, with a total value of $846,116.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 59,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,828,450.26. The trade was a 21.25% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 14,723 shares of company stock valued at $1,186,772 and have sold 18,080 shares valued at $1,439,350. Company insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of GPN stock opened at $71.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.01, a PEG ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $77.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $65.93 and a 12 month high of $114.17.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The business services provider reported $3.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.03. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 19.68%.The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.41 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.08 EPS. Global Payments has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.600-6.666 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 12th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GPN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $93.00 price target on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Stephens reduced their price objective on Global Payments from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Global Payments from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.82.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc (NYSE: GPN) is a worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions that enables commerce for merchants, issuers and enterprises. The company develops and operates payment processing networks, point-of-sale systems and cloud-based software that facilitate electronic transactions across in-store, online and mobile channels. Its services span merchant acquiring, payment gateway services, omnichannel commerce platforms, and solutions for recurring and subscription billing.

Global Payments offers a range of products and services including integrated payment terminals and point-of-sale software, e-commerce and gateway technologies, fraud prevention and tokenization tools, and business analytics and reporting.