Global Payments Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 (NYSE:GPN)

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the business services provider on Friday, December 26th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th.

Global Payments has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.3%annually over the last three years. Global Payments has a dividend payout ratio of 7.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Global Payments to earn $13.49 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.4%.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN traded up $2.94 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $80.04. 4,159,752 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,669,875. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.98. Global Payments has a one year low of $65.93 and a one year high of $120.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $85.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.73.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.04. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 12.47%. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.93 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Global Payments will post 11.89 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Tuesday. Mizuho upgraded Global Payments from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $86.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.45.

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.