Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Holdings Cut by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lowered its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 9.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,045 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,387 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $4,487,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 65.6% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,982,496 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $203,047,000 after purchasing an additional 785,539 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1,559.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 548,833 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $61,502,000 after purchasing an additional 515,763 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 22.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $271,090,000 after purchasing an additional 490,411 shares during the period. Soros Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments during the third quarter valued at approximately $47,113,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 925.5% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 417,832 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $42,794,000 after acquiring an additional 377,087 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GPN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $118.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $135.76.

Global Payments Trading Up 1.5 %

Global Payments stock opened at $105.67 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $110.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $108.56. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $141.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.01.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 13.61% and a return on equity of 11.94%. Research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Global Payments

In related news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. bought 5,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,957,608. This represents a 15.70 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

About Global Payments

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.