Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA Boosts Stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA boosted its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 101,957 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,666 shares during the period. Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $11,425,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,949,458 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $330,516,000 after purchasing an additional 349,457 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Global Payments by 65.6% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,982,496 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $203,047,000 after purchasing an additional 785,539 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Global Payments during the third quarter worth about $562,000. Caprock Group LLC raised its stake in Global Payments by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Global Payments by 106.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 50,705 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,682,000 after purchasing an additional 26,104 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. purchased 5,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $116.00 per share, for a total transaction of $672,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 42,738 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,957,608. The trade was a 15.70 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price objective (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.33.

Global Payments Stock Performance

GPN stock opened at $105.51 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $109.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $108.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $26.13 billion, a PE ratio of 17.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.01. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $91.60 and a 1-year high of $140.38.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.14). Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The firm had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 16.18%.

Global Payments Company Profile

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.