Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Lowers Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Price Target to $150.00

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) had its price target reduced by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $158.00 to $150.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on GPN. Mizuho reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $129.00 target price on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $182.00 to $150.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Global Payments from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $150.00.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of GPN traded up $0.83 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $111.37. The company had a trading volume of 3,191,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,029,470. The business has a fifty day moving average of $127.93 and a 200-day moving average of $124.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $28.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.10, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.97. Global Payments has a 12 month low of $95.12 and a 12 month high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 13.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.30 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Global Payments will post 10.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is presently 19.84%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GPN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $365,933,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,078,525,000 after buying an additional 2,703,434 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 338.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $379,416,000 after acquiring an additional 2,537,941 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments during the 3rd quarter valued at $197,875,000. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its stake in Global Payments by 40.5% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,613,000 after acquiring an additional 1,481,714 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

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.