Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt Raises Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 70.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 564 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 233 shares during the quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $72,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GPN. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 10.3% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,136 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $840,000 after purchasing an additional 572 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in Global Payments by 7.7% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,942 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $539,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Global Payments by 3.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,288,788 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $176,366,000 after acquiring an additional 48,605 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in Global Payments by 259.7% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 17,285 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,377,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC acquired a new position in Global Payments during the first quarter worth about $766,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GPN. B. Riley lifted their price target on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Trading Down 0.0 %

GPN opened at $122.13 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.15 billion, a PE ratio of 32.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $130.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Global Payments Inc. has a 12-month low of $95.12 and a 12-month high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.46%.

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.