Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 80,232 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Prudential Financial Inc. reduced its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 36.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 140,972 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 80,232 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned 0.06% of Global Payments worth $15,797,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,995,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,800,952,000 after purchasing an additional 179,195 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Global Payments by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $929,969,000 after buying an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,928,445 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $605,078,000 after buying an additional 31,934 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Global Payments by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $564,437,000 after acquiring an additional 83,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,949,458 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $330,516,000 after acquiring an additional 349,457 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GPN shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Stephens cut shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.33.

Global Payments Stock Down 0.4 %

GPN stock opened at $99.47 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $90.99 and a 12 month high of $133.89. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $103.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $107.44. 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is presently 16.18%.

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.