Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-six research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $151.92.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GPN shares. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Barclays cut their price target on Global Payments from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. TheStreet raised Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN stock opened at $124.68 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. Global Payments has a 1 year low of $95.12 and a 1 year high of $141.77. The firm has a market cap of $31.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.86.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $0.01. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 10.22%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Global Payments will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.46%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Global Payments

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GPN. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 18.8% during the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 524 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,752 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $687,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,707 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.