Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Wednesday morning.

GPN has been the subject of several other reports. B. Riley cut their price objective on Global Payments from $204.00 to $194.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded Global Payments to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Monness Crespi & Hardt dropped their price objective on Global Payments from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Global Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $136.57.

Global Payments Price Performance

NYSE GPN opened at $117.08 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $105.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $103.56. Global Payments has a 52-week low of $91.60 and a 52-week high of $141.77.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.83%.

Institutional Trading of Global Payments

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GPN. Boyar Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 22.4% in the third quarter. Boyar Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,329 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $853,000 after buying an additional 1,525 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,315 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $544,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 79.4% during the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 32,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,288,000 after purchasing an additional 14,212 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its position in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 337,378 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,116 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 8.3% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,071,000 after purchasing an additional 1,543 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.