Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Makes New $253,000 Investment in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,469 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $253,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Global Payments by 470.7% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 27,122 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,623,000 after purchasing an additional 22,370 shares in the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Global Payments in the 2nd quarter valued at about $444,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments during the 2nd quarter valued at about $251,000. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Global Payments by 11.2% during the second quarter. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,443 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $526,000 after acquiring an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Koa Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 165.5% in the second quarter. Koa Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,185 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,758,000 after purchasing an additional 11,336 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on GPN shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Global Payments from $164.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Global Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $147.00 target price on shares of Global Payments in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Global Payments to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.41.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In other news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. acquired 5,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Global Payments Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of GPN stock opened at $113.99 on Tuesday. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $91.60 and a fifty-two week high of $141.77. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $110.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $104.68. The stock has a market cap of $29.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.83%.

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.