Convergence Investment Partners LLC Invests $1.02 Million in Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Convergence Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 12,323 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,024,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 32.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,050,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $884,462,000 after acquiring an additional 2,716,156 shares during the last quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 13.8% in the second 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 period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Global Payments during the second quarter valued at $273,844,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 5.0% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,070,960 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $165,760,000 after purchasing an additional 98,815 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 1.5% in 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GPN. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 24th. KeyCorp lowered Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price target on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Citigroup raised Global Payments to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.82.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of GPN stock opened at $72.02 on Tuesday. Global Payments Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.93 and a 12-month high of $112.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.34.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The business services provider reported $3.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.41 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 19.68%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.08 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider David Lawrence Green sold 11,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.99, for a total value of $927,884.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 68,096 shares in the company, valued at $5,446,999.04. This represents a 14.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP David M. Sheffield sold 2,016 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total transaction of $164,122.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 14,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,175,397.58. The trade was a 12.25% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety 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 company insiders.

Global Payments 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.