River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 30,593 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

River Road Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 460,738 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 30,593 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC owned about 0.18% of Global Payments worth $51,630,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted 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 valued at $203,047,000 after acquiring an additional 785,539 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted 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 valued at $61,502,000 after acquiring an additional 515,763 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Global Payments by 22.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,700,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GPN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stephens cut Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price objective (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com raised Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.33.

Global Payments Price Performance

NYSE:GPN opened at $97.06 on Tuesday. 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 simple moving average is $107.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.63. The stock has a market cap of $24.03 billion, a PE ratio of 15.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $140.38.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted 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). The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. As a group, analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 16.18%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. acquired 5,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $116.00 per share, for a total transaction of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,957,608. This trade represents a 15.70 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

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.