Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Director Acquires $672,800.00 in Stock

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. acquired 5,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $116.00 per share, for a total transaction of $672,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,957,608. The trade was a 15.70 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Global Payments Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE GPN traded down $0.20 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $114.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 887,983 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,256,728. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $91.60 and a one year high of $141.77. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $109.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.58. 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 stock has a market cap of $29.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.00.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.83%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Global Payments by 194.2% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 6,423,463 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $621,149,000 after purchasing an additional 4,240,388 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Global Payments by 65.6% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,982,496 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $203,047,000 after purchasing an additional 785,539 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Global Payments by 188.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,728 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $109,857,000 after buying an additional 755,898 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 22.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $271,090,000 after acquiring an additional 490,411 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 316.7% during the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 609,939 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $58,981,000 after purchasing an additional 463,568 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on GPN shares. 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. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $147.00 target price on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Global Payments from $126.00 to $122.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BTIG Research lowered Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, William Blair cut Global Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $137.41.

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.