Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Buys 250 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 14.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,033 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $258,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $881,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Global Payments by 406.6% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 12,381 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,572,000 after buying an additional 9,937 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Global Payments by 47.8% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,074 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $517,000 after buying an additional 1,317 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 46,275 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,877,000 after buying an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 24.2% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 30,474 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,870,000 after acquiring an additional 5,929 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on GPN. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group upped their price target on Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $137.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $129.00 price target on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Global Payments currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.31.

Global Payments Stock Performance

GPN stock opened at $123.12 on Tuesday. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $95.12 and a twelve month high of $141.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $31.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s fifty day moving average is $131.42 and its 200-day moving average is $124.16.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.