Cozad Asset Management Inc. Buys 6,848 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Cozad Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 32.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,833 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,848 shares during the period. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $3,535,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,525,000 after purchasing an additional 2,703,434 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.5% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $591,613,000 after acquiring an additional 1,481,714 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,499,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $403,849,000 after acquiring an additional 116,664 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,402,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $392,657,000 after acquiring an additional 89,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 338.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $379,416,000 after acquiring an additional 2,537,941 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GPN shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. TheStreet raised Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Global Payments from $138.00 to $137.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Down 1.1 %

Global Payments stock traded down $1.36 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $123.32. The stock had a trading volume of 1,062,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,146,186. The company has a market capitalization of $31.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.98, a PEG ratio of 0.80 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. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $95.12 and a 12 month high of $141.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $129.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $124.86.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid 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 yield of 0.81%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.