Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Stock Holdings Boosted by Montag A & Associates Inc.

Montag A & Associates Inc. raised its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 51.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 27,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,237 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $3,435,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GPN. FMR LLC boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 2,703,434 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its position 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 in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,499,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $403,849,000 after acquiring an additional 116,664 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 2.7% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,402,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $392,657,000 after acquiring an additional 89,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Global Payments by 338.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $379,416,000 after purchasing an additional 2,537,941 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GPN shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Global Payments from $160.00 to $152.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Global Payments from $158.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $129.00 target price on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $150.00.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE GPN traded up $0.51 during trading on Thursday, reaching $111.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,726,658 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,278,756. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $126.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $124.72. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $95.12 and a 1-year high of $141.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.48 billion, a PE ratio of 22.14, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 13.40% and a return on equity of 11.72%. Global Payments’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.30 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 19.84%.

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.