Clearbridge Investments LLC Acquires 925,099 Shares of Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 5,710.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 941,299 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 925,099 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned 0.40% of Global Payments worth $72,857,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GPN. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $725,000. Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 1st quarter valued at about $243,000. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 43.5% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 14,462 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,416,000 after buying an additional 4,386 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 41,577 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,327,000 after purchasing an additional 2,840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AXA S.A. raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 236.6% in the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 28,622 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,291,000 after purchasing an additional 20,119 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Global Payments Price Performance

NYSE:GPN opened at $64.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $17.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $69.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.29. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $62.45 and a 1-year high of $90.64.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.82 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.81 billion. Global Payments had a negative net margin of 7.99% and a positive return on equity of 13.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 63.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.82 EPS. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 13.89 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is -49.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GPN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $80.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $97.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $85.50.

About Global Payments

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.