Cwm LLC Purchases 8,575 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Cwm LLC grew its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 42.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,998 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,575 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $3,683,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,525,000 after buying an additional 2,703,434 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Global Payments by 40.5% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,613,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481,714 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Global Payments by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,499,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $403,849,000 after purchasing an additional 116,664 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Global Payments by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,402,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $392,657,000 after purchasing an additional 89,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Global Payments by 338.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $379,416,000 after purchasing an additional 2,537,941 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on GPN shares. B. Riley lifted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of GPN opened at $127.47 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $129.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $32.52 billion, a PE ratio of 33.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.96. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $95.12 and a 52-week high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The company’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 26.46%.

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.