Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN – Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,500,000 shares, a drop of 17.3% from the November 30th total of 4,230,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,440,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.4 days. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of equities analysts have commented on GPN shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $160.00 to $157.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. Exane BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Global Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 18th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Global Payments from $132.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 12th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Global Payments from $165.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $155.38.
Global Payments Stock Up 0.1 %
NYSE GPN traded up $0.12 on Monday, hitting $99.32. 43,382 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,114,630. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Global Payments has a fifty-two week low of $92.27 and a fifty-two week high of $153.76. The company has a market cap of $26.86 billion, a PE ratio of 451.48, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $101.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $113.54.
Global Payments (NYSE:GPN – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 31st. The business services provider reported $2.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.38 by ($0.01). Global Payments had a return on equity of 9.85% and a net margin of 0.79%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.00 earnings per share. Global Payments’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Global Payments will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Global Payments Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 16th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 15th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.01%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 454.57%.
Insider Transactions at Global Payments
In other Global Payments news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. purchased 3,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $98.62 per share, with a total value of $335,308.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 38,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,840,262.80. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Global Payments news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. purchased 3,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $98.62 per share, with a total value of $335,308.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 38,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,840,262.80. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director M Troy Woods bought 5,247 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction on Friday, November 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $95.26 per share, for a total transaction of $499,829.22. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 287,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,405,158.88. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 1.19% of the company’s stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Global Payments
Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GPN. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Global Payments by 10.3% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,136 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $840,000 after acquiring an additional 572 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Global Payments by 7.7% in the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,942 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $539,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares in the last quarter. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.8% in the first quarter. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC now owns 6,899 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $944,000 after buying an additional 1,999 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 50.5% in the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,022 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,192,000 after buying an additional 5,378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 3.3% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 477,048 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $65,279,000 after buying an additional 15,417 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.58% of the company’s stock.
Global Payments Company Profile
Global Payments Inc provides payment technology and software solutions for card, electronic, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Merchant Solutions, Issuer Solutions, and Business and Consumer Solutions. The Merchant Solutions segment offers authorization services, settlement and funding services, customer support and help-desk functions, chargeback resolution, terminal rental, sales and deployment, payment security services, consolidated billing and statements, and on-line reporting services.