Vontobel Holding Ltd. Boosts Holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 133.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,412 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,682 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $3,481,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GPN. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,525,000 after buying an additional 2,703,434 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $261,300,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 338.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $379,416,000 after buying an additional 2,537,941 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments in the third quarter valued at approximately $197,875,000. Finally, Boston Partners raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 40.5% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $591,613,000 after buying an additional 1,481,714 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Stock Performance

NYSE:GPN opened at $122.95 on Thursday. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $95.12 and a twelve month high of $141.77. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $130.89 and a 200-day moving average of $124.21. The firm has a market cap of $31.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. 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 report on Monday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.92.

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.