Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-six analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $152.31.

GPN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $129.00 price target on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group raised their price target on Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays raised their price target on Global Payments from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TheStreet raised Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Global Payments

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 6.4% in the first quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 1,389 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $190,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 3.8% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $287,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A. raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $687,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 2.0% in the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,707 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $543,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,828,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Global Payments Price Performance

NYSE GPN opened at $124.54 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $31.77 billion, a PE ratio of 32.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $131.94 and its 200 day moving average is $123.97. Global Payments has a fifty-two week low of $95.12 and a fifty-two week high of $141.77.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 10.22%. Global Payments’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.30 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Global Payments will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is currently 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.