Brokerages Set Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Target Price at $134.33

Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-six brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have given a hold recommendation and fourteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $134.33.

GPN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens downgraded shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $345,823,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $929,969,000 after acquiring an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Contour Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at $147,695,000. Focused Investors LLC bought a new position in Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth $99,969,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in 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 worth $203,047,000 after purchasing an additional 785,539 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN opened at $98.82 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $104.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $107.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.30 billion, a PE ratio of 15.99, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Global Payments has a fifty-two week low of $90.99 and a fifty-two week high of $136.36.

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 company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Global Payments will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.18%.

Global Payments Company 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.