River Road Asset Management LLC Reduces Stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

River Road Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 6.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 460,738 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 30,593 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $51,630,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GPN. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 295.6% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 724 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 541 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 2.7% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 25,830 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,646,000 after buying an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 10.6% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 9,942 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,018,000 after buying an additional 952 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 2.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 299,137 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $30,638,000 after buying an additional 8,078 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the third quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Global Payments

In other news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. purchased 5,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,957,608. This represents a 15.70 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Global Payments Stock Down 3.7 %

GPN stock opened at $97.06 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $24.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.70, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $91.60 and a 12 month high of $140.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $107.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $108.63.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 16.18%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GPN shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price target (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment 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.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.33.

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.