South Dakota Investment Council Has $12.57 Million Stock Holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

South Dakota Investment Council reduced its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 98,985 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 6,782 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $12,571,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Global Payments by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $287,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A. increased its holdings in Global Payments by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $687,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its holdings in Global Payments by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,707 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital increased its holdings in Global Payments by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,828,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KB Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in Global Payments by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GPN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. B. Riley boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GPN traded up $2.72 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $126.95. 1,218,912 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,176,515. The company has a market cap of $32.38 billion, a PE ratio of 33.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $129.88 and a 200 day moving average of $124.56. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $95.12 and a 52-week high of $141.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.46%.

About Global Payments

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.