Foster & Motley Inc. Takes $402,000 Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Foster & Motley Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,163 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in GPN. Park Place Capital Corp grew its position in Global Payments by 14.6% in the third quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 1,352 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $156,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $288,000. CX Institutional acquired a new position in Global Payments during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $211,000. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. lifted its stake in Global Payments by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 455,567 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $52,568,000 after purchasing an additional 6,667 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the third quarter worth $571,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on GPN. KeyCorp increased their target price on Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wedbush raised 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. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Global Payments from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Performance

NYSE GPN opened at $127.47 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $32.52 billion, a PE ratio of 33.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $95.12 and a 52-week high of $141.77. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.58.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. Global Payments’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.46%.

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.