Montag & Caldwell LLC Sells 481 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Montag & Caldwell LLC lowered its position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,304 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 481 shares during the period. Montag & Caldwell LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Global Payments by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $287,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A. boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $687,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its position in Global Payments by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,707 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,828,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the period. Finally, KB Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GPN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. B. Riley increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.6 %

GPN stock traded up $0.69 during trading on Monday, reaching $125.26. The stock had a trading volume of 825,425 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,130,374. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $95.12 and a one year high of $141.77. The company’s 50 day moving average is $129.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.79. The company has a market capitalization of $31.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.30 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.