Global Payments Inc. (GPN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 on September 27th

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 7th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the business services provider on Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th.

Global Payments has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.6% per year over the last three years. Global Payments has a dividend payout ratio of 7.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Global Payments to earn $12.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.0%.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of Global Payments stock opened at $109.36 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $27.83 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day moving average of $103.17 and a 200 day moving average of $111.10. Global Payments has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $141.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The business services provider reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.03. Global Payments had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 11.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.32 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.48 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Global Payments will post 11.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In related news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total value of $166,305.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,068,087.63. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $100.00 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. Stephens cut their price target on Global Payments from $145.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Global Payments from $129.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.96.

Global Payments Company Profile

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.