AIMZ Investment Advisors LLC Sells 121 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

AIMZ Investment Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,957 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. AIMZ Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $219,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 26,946 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,760,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Sage Capital Advisors llc lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 28,232 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,164,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. SYM FINANCIAL Corp boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 4.1% during the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 2,440 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust increased its holdings in Global Payments by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,068 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its stake in Global Payments by 27.2% in the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 543 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on GPN shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price target (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stephens lowered shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Global Payments currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.33.

Global Payments Stock Up 1.6 %

GPN stock opened at $103.19 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.01. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $91.60 and a 12 month high of $140.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $109.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $108.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.18%.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In other news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. acquired 5,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,957,608. This trade represents a 15.70 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.98% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.