Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Has $7.20 Million Holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 64,264 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,181 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $7,201,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 3.4% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 6,638,862 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $679,952,000 after purchasing an additional 215,399 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,928,445 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $605,078,000 after buying an additional 31,934 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Global Payments by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $564,437,000 after buying an additional 83,481 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Global Payments by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,949,458 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $330,516,000 after acquiring an additional 349,457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 22.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $271,090,000 after acquiring an additional 490,411 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Stephens lowered shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Barclays cut their target price on Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price target (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. bought 5,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,957,608. This trade represents a 15.70 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.98% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Global Payments Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of GPN opened at $100.32 on Thursday. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $91.60 and a twelve month high of $140.38. The stock has a market cap of $24.84 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $108.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $108.85.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is 16.18%.

Global Payments 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.