Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Invests $90,000 in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 800 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $90,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Global Payments by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $929,969,000 after acquiring an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Global Payments by 65.6% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Global Payments by 1,559.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 548,833 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $61,502,000 after purchasing an additional 515,763 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $271,090,000 after acquiring an additional 490,411 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at about $53,700,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of GPN stock opened at $97.03 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $23.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $90.99 and a 12 month high of $136.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $104.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $107.70.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.18%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GPN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price objective (down previously from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.33.

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.