Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Shares Sold by Malaga Cove Capital LLC

Malaga Cove Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,161 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 808 shares during the quarter. Malaga Cove Capital LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $915,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GPN. AIA Group Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at $349,000. Oribel Capital Management LP raised its position in Global Payments by 495.1% in the fourth quarter. Oribel Capital Management LP now owns 521,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $58,417,000 after purchasing an additional 433,700 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 106.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 50,705 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,682,000 after purchasing an additional 26,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focused Investors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth about $99,969,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on GPN. Barclays dropped their target price on Global Payments from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $75.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, April 18th. Cowen downgraded shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Global Payments from $105.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $112.09.

Global Payments Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of Global Payments stock opened at $82.77 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $86.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.14. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.93 and a fifty-two week high of $120.00. The firm has a market cap of $20.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.73 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.59 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 16.13%.

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.