Short Interest in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Decreases By 6.5%

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,710,000 shares, a decrease of 6.5% from the March 15th total of 7,180,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days. Currently, 2.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Global Payments

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Global Payments by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,136 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 572 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its position in shares of Global Payments by 7.7% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,942 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $539,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Global Payments by 3.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,288,788 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $176,366,000 after acquiring an additional 48,605 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in shares of Global Payments by 259.7% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 17,285 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,377,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC purchased a new position in shares of Global Payments during the first quarter worth approximately $766,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on GPN. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. B. Riley increased their price target on Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Price Performance

Global Payments stock traded up $0.26 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $123.43. The stock had a trading volume of 1,583,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,992,215. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.65, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $131.18 and its 200 day moving average is $124.21. Global Payments has a one year low of $95.12 and a one year high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Global Payments will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.