Eastern Bank Decreases Stake in Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Eastern Bank lowered its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 79.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 408 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,549 shares during the period. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $33,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Global Payments by 0.4% in the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,334,097 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $816,075,000 after acquiring an additional 35,251 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in Global Payments by 77.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,001,585 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $186,107,000 after acquiring an additional 874,175 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Global Payments by 2.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,955,393 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $191,451,000 after acquiring an additional 49,029 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Global Payments by 0.6% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,624,288 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $159,050,000 after acquiring an additional 9,755 shares during 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 worth $140,402,000 after acquiring an additional 84,285 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Stock Up 1.7%

GPN stock opened at $84.24 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $86.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.05. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $65.93 and a 12 month high of $120.00. The company has a market cap of $20.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. Global Payments’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 12th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is currently 17.48%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on GPN shares. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Global Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective (up previously from $90.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $86.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.75.

Insider Transactions at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $172,000.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,641,318. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

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.