Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Citigroup

Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) in a research report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $110.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on GPN. KeyCorp lowered shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Global Payments from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Global Payments has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.37.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GPN opened at $87.42 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.98. Global Payments has a 52 week low of $65.93 and a 52 week high of $120.00. 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 50 day moving average of $86.53 and a 200 day moving average of $81.89.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 12.47%. Global Payments’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Global Payments will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is currently 17.48%.

Insider Transactions at Global Payments

In related news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $172,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares in the company, valued at $2,641,318. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Global Payments during the second quarter valued at $273,844,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 32.6% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,050,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $884,462,000 after acquiring an additional 2,716,156 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments in the first quarter worth about $94,107,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 480.7% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,074,669 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $86,017,000 after acquiring an additional 889,590 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 77.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,001,585 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $186,107,000 after acquiring an additional 874,175 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.