Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 15,700 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,994,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,819,457 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,138,638,000 after acquiring an additional 134,403 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Global Payments by 40.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,078,525,000 after purchasing an additional 2,703,434 shares during the period. 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 during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Global Payments by 24.8% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,518,268 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $370,263,000 after purchasing an additional 698,913 shares during the period. Finally, 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 during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Global Payments Stock Performance

GPN stock opened at $122.95 on Thursday. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $130.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.21. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $95.12 and a twelve month high of $141.77. The firm has a market cap of $31.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.53, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.96.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $0.01. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 10.22%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 26.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Global Payments from $138.00 to $137.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. B. Riley upped their price objective on Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.92.

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.