Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $77.82, but opened at $80.90. Global Payments shares last traded at $79.0550, with a volume of 616,028 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BTIG Research restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on Global Payments from $88.00 to $76.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Global Payments from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.33.

Global Payments Stock Up 6.1%

The stock has a market cap of $22.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -40.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $71.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.87.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.82 by $0.14. Global Payments had a negative net margin of 7.99% and a positive return on equity of 13.11%. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.81 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.82 earnings per share. Global Payments’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 13.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -49.02%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Westpac Banking Corp increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 5,795.1% in the fourth quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 57,182 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,426,000 after purchasing an additional 56,212 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 30.8% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 448,100 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,683,000 after buying an additional 105,500 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Global Payments by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,409,697 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $883,111,000 after buying an additional 500,887 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Global Payments by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,431,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $110,768,000 after buying an additional 227,317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at $22,847,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc (NYSE: GPN) is a worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions that enables commerce for merchants, issuers and enterprises. The company develops and operates payment processing networks, point-of-sale systems and cloud-based software that facilitate electronic transactions across in-store, online and mobile channels. Its services span merchant acquiring, payment gateway services, omnichannel commerce platforms, and solutions for recurring and subscription billing.

Global Payments offers a range of products and services including integrated payment terminals and point-of-sale software, e-commerce and gateway technologies, fraud prevention and tokenization tools, and business analytics and reporting.