Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. Takes $1.10 Million Position in Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 13,179 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,095,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $884,462,000 after purchasing an additional 2,716,156 shares in the last quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC now owns 4,316,892 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $345,524,000 after purchasing an additional 523,209 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Global Payments in the 2nd quarter valued at about $273,844,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,070,960 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $165,760,000 after buying an additional 98,815 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Global Payments by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,649,083 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $131,993,000 after buying an additional 24,795 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Global Payments Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of GPN opened at $71.26 on Friday. Global Payments Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.93 and a 12-month high of $114.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.01, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $77.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The business services provider reported $3.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.03. Global Payments had a net margin of 19.68% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.41 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.08 EPS. Global Payments has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.600-6.666 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 26th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 12th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GPN. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Global Payments to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp lowered Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 16th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $90.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Global Payments to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.82.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, insider David Lawrence Green sold 11,600 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.99, for a total value of $927,884.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 68,096 shares in the company, valued at $5,446,999.04. The trade was a 14.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. purchased 10,392 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $81.42 per share, with a total value of $846,116.64. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 59,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,828,450.26. This trade represents a 21.25% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 14,723 shares of company stock valued at $1,186,772 and have sold 18,080 shares valued at $1,439,350. 1.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Global Payments Company Profile

Global Payments Inc (NYSE: GPN) is a worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions that enables commerce for merchants, issuers and enterprises. The company develops and operates payment processing networks, point-of-sale systems and cloud-based software that facilitate electronic transactions across in-store, online and mobile channels. Its services span merchant acquiring, payment gateway services, omnichannel commerce platforms, and solutions for recurring and subscription billing.

Global Payments offers a range of products and services including integrated payment terminals and point-of-sale software, e-commerce and gateway technologies, fraud prevention and tokenization tools, and business analytics and reporting.