Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 319 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,671 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 319 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $847,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 70.4% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 564 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 60.5% during the 3rd quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 19,593 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,261,000 after acquiring an additional 7,387 shares in the last quarter. Shaker Investments LLC OH bought a new position in shares of Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,815,000. AFS Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Global Payments in the 4th quarter worth approximately $202,000. Finally, Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. boosted its position in Global Payments by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 19,519 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,479,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GPN shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com lowered Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. B. Riley upped their price target on Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Down 0.1 %

GPN opened at $122.10 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $31.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.30, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $130.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.40. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $95.12 and a twelve month high of $141.77.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is presently 26.46%.

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.