Vanguard Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Vanguard Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,175,164 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 367,296 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 9.79% of Global Payments worth $1,793,758,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Argyle Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Global Payments by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Argyle Capital Management LLC now owns 19,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,471,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Global Payments by 49.8% during the 4th quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,242 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $638,000 after purchasing an additional 2,741 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Global Payments by 725.5% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 48,302 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,739,000 after purchasing an additional 42,451 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $646,000. Finally, Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Global Payments by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC now owns 103,651 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,023,000 after purchasing an additional 871 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Trading Up 4.4%

Shares of NYSE GPN opened at $70.91 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a market cap of $19.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.76. Global Payments Inc. has a 12-month low of $62.45 and a 12-month high of $90.64.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The business services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.16 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.72% and a net margin of 16.92%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.85 EPS. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 13.73 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is presently 17.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GPN shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Stephens decreased their target price on Global Payments from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 16th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on Global Payments from $64.00 to $60.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Global Payments in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $76.00 target price for the company. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on Global Payments from $85.00 to $81.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.20.

Global Payments Profile

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.