Truist Financial Corp Decreases Stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Truist Financial Corp reduced its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 894,901 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 36,336 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $113,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its position in Global Payments by 70.4% in the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 564 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 60.5% during the third quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 19,593 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,261,000 after purchasing an additional 7,387 shares during the last quarter. Shaker Investments LLC OH bought a new position in shares of Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $1,815,000. AFS Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $202,000. Finally, Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 19,519 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,479,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GPN shares. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Global Payments currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN traded down $0.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $124.57. 1,593,668 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,321,103. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $95.12 and a fifty-two week high of $141.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $31.78 billion, a PE ratio of 32.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.65.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $0.01. Global Payments had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 11.44%. 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 business earned $2.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. 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.