Traders Buy High Volume of Global Payments Put Options (NYSE:GPN)

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors bought 15,832 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 498% compared to the average daily volume of 2,649 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Global Payments

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Southern Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 5.1% in the first quarter. Southern Financial Group LLC now owns 3,651 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $246,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 30.4% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 3,018 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $203,000 after purchasing an additional 704 shares during the last quarter. Front Street Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Front Street Capital Management Inc. now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Global Payments in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Global Payments in the 1st quarter valued at $895,000. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GPN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Susquehanna set a $111.00 target price on shares of Global Payments and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Global Payments in a report on Monday, March 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $88.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded Global Payments from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Global Payments from $97.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.87.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GPN traded down $0.83 on Tuesday, hitting $64.26. The company had a trading volume of 654,630 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,694,236. The stock has a market cap of $17.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 0.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $69.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.70. Global Payments has a 1-year low of $61.16 and a 1-year high of $90.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.82 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.81 billion. Global Payments had a negative net margin of 7.99% and a positive return on equity of 13.11%. Global Payments’s quarterly revenue was up 63.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.82 EPS. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. Analysts expect that Global Payments will post 13.88 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is currently -49.02%.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc (NYSE: GPN) is a worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions that enables commerce for merchants, issuers and enterprises. The company develops and operates payment processing networks, point-of-sale systems and cloud-based software that facilitate electronic transactions across in-store, online and mobile channels. Its services span merchant acquiring, payment gateway services, omnichannel commerce platforms, and solutions for recurring and subscription billing.

Global Payments offers a range of products and services including integrated payment terminals and point-of-sale software, e-commerce and gateway technologies, fraud prevention and tokenization tools, and business analytics and reporting.