Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Receives $151.92 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $150.04.

GPN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $182.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GPN. Salomon & Ludwin LLC raised its holdings in Global Payments by 82.5% in the first quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 491 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 2,311.0% in the first quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,605 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 4,414 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 8.3% in the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 28,618 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,825,000 after buying an additional 2,193 shares in the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 2.0% in the first quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 53,518 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,153,000 after buying an additional 1,034 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Global Payments by 5.1% during the first quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,930 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GPN opened at $110.54 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $127.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.72. Global Payments has a 1-year low of $95.12 and a 1-year high of $141.77. The stock has a market cap of $28.20 billion, a PE ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 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.