Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of GPN traded up $0.60 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $127.47. 1,395,189 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,168,980. Global Payments has a one year low of $95.12 and a one year high of $141.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day moving average of $129.64 and a 200 day moving average of $124.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.72, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.96.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. Global Payments’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Global Payments will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter worth about $365,933,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,078,525,000 after buying an additional 2,703,434 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 338.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $379,416,000 after buying an additional 2,537,941 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the 3rd quarter worth about $197,875,000. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.5% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,613,000 after buying an additional 1,481,714 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

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.