BMO Capital Markets Trims Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Target Price to $128.00

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) had its price objective trimmed by BMO Capital Markets from $143.00 to $128.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a market perform rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $160.00 to $157.00 and set a positive rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $182.00 to $150.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, B. Riley upped their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $150.00.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Global Payments stock traded up $0.83 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $111.37. The company had a trading volume of 3,191,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,029,470. The company’s 50-day moving average is $127.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.69. Global Payments has a twelve month low of $95.12 and a twelve month high of $141.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company has a market cap of $28.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.97.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 13.40% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Global Payments will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.84%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Global Payments

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,078,525,000 after purchasing an additional 2,703,434 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake 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 worth $591,613,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481,714 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,087,801 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $646,151,000 after purchasing an additional 132,635 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 worth $403,849,000 after purchasing an additional 116,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake 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 worth $392,657,000 after purchasing an additional 89,057 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Global Payments Company 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.