47,943 Shares in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Acquired by Pinebridge Investments L.P.

Pinebridge Investments L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 47,943 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,372,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Virtu Financial LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments by 79.4% during the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 32,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,288,000 after acquiring an additional 14,212 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,315 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $544,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. Boyar Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. Boyar Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,329 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 24.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 44,394 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,547,000 after purchasing an additional 8,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $253,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $75.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, April 18th. Wolfe Research restated a “peer perform” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Global Payments from $145.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Global Payments from $145.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Global Payments currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $114.86.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN opened at $71.95 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $92.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $104.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Global Payments Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.93 and a 1 year high of $127.06. The stock has a market cap of $17.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.64, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is 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.