Sciencast Management LP Takes $3.55 Million Position in Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Sciencast Management LP purchased a new stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 36,211 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,546,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in Global Payments in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,017,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in Global Payments by 11.0% in the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 28,237 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,765,000 after buying an additional 2,803 shares during the period. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV raised its holdings in Global Payments by 1.2% in the first quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 31,746 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,109,000 after buying an additional 384 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in Global Payments by 26.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 155,821 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,258,000 after buying an additional 32,794 shares during the period. Finally, Estuary Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Global Payments by 32.5% in the first quarter. Estuary Capital Management LP now owns 318,433 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,181,000 after buying an additional 78,065 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Global Payments

In related news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $172,000.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares in the company, valued at $2,641,318. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on GPN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Mizuho raised shares of Global Payments from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $86.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nineteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.21.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Global Payments stock opened at $87.69 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $21.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $83.67 and a 200-day moving average of $84.41. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.93 and a 52 week high of $120.00.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.47% and a net margin of 15.07%.The business’s revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.48%.

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.