Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the business services provider on Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th.

Global Payments has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.6% per year over the last three years. Global Payments has a dividend payout ratio of 7.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Global Payments to earn $12.24 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 8.2%.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.4 %

Global Payments stock opened at $103.71 on Friday. Global Payments has a 12 month low of $91.60 and a 12 month high of $141.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.39 billion, a PE ratio of 19.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $104.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $104.37.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The business services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.03. Global Payments had a net margin of 13.61% and a return on equity of 11.94%. The business had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.48 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Global Payments will post 11.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Global Payments news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total transaction of $166,305.23. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,068,087.63. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.98% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $147.00 price objective on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BTIG Research lowered shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Global Payments in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Global Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $136.96.

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.