Earnest Partners LLC Acquires 121,465 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Earnest Partners LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 26.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 580,979 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 121,465 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC owned about 0.23% of Global Payments worth $77,654,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its position in Global Payments by 70.4% in the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 564 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $210,000. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in Global Payments by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 46,953 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,963,000 after purchasing an additional 12,273 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its position in Global Payments by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 82,672 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,499,000 after purchasing an additional 18,615 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Global Payments by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 255,468 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,064,000 after buying an additional 15,655 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Global Payments from $160.00 to $157.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com cut Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Global Payments from $182.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Global Payments from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Global Payments from $129.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $145.32.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Andrea M. Carter sold 3,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.34, for a total value of $367,422.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 25,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,770.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Trading Up 0.4 %

GPN traded up $0.38 on Monday, reaching $101.57. 1,135,000 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,302,129. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $25.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $98.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $117.36. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $91.60 and a one year high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $2.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 13.40% and a return on equity of 11.72%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 19.84%.

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.