Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 123,303 Shares of Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Nordea Investment Management AB cut its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 4.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,729,151 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 123,303 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB owned 1.12% of Global Payments worth $218,032,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 32.6% during the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,050,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $884,462,000 after buying an additional 2,716,156 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in Global Payments by 77.5% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,001,585 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $186,107,000 after buying an additional 874,175 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Global Payments by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,955,393 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $191,451,000 after buying an additional 49,029 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Global Payments by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,624,288 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $159,050,000 after buying an additional 9,755 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Global Payments by 6.1% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $140,402,000 after acquiring an additional 84,285 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Global Payments Trading Up 2.1%

GPN opened at $85.40 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $86.30 and its 200-day moving average is $81.92. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.93 and a 1-year high of $120.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $20.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.93, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.98.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.04. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 12.47%. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict 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 was paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $172,000.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares in the company, valued at $2,641,318. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen lowered shares of Global Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $86.00 to $114.00 in a research note on Friday, July 25th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.75.

Global Payments 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.