Sentry Investment Management LLC Sells 167 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Sentry Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,023 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 167 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $115,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GPN. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 40.6% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 5,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $587,000 after purchasing an additional 1,655 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 7,624.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 102,113 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,458,000 after purchasing an additional 100,791 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 21.9% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 33,070 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,387,000 after purchasing an additional 5,948 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 30.3% in the third quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 3,374 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 784 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Global Payments by 26.9% in the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 18,896 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,935,000 after purchasing an additional 4,002 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 target price (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.33.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In related news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. bought 5,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now 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 purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Global Payments Trading Down 1.9 %

GPN stock opened at $101.46 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $109.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.95. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $140.38. The company has a market capitalization of $25.12 billion, a PE ratio of 16.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.01.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.14). Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.18%.

Global Payments 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.