Greatmark Investment Partners Inc. Reduces Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Greatmark Investment Partners Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 56,633 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,489 shares during the quarter. Greatmark Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $7,192,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $687,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 2.0% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,707 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,828,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Finally, KB Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 2.9% during the third quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Wedbush upped their target price on Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their target price on Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN traded up $0.61 during trading on Monday, hitting $125.18. The company had a trading volume of 1,460,168 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,141,045. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $129.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.79. 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 12 month low of $95.12 and a 12 month high of $141.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.