Optimum Investment Advisors Decreases Position in Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Optimum Investment Advisors cut its stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 8.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,572 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors’ holdings in Global Payments were worth $126,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its position in Global Payments by 32.6% during the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,050,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $884,462,000 after purchasing an additional 2,716,156 shares during the period. Amundi raised its position in Global Payments by 77.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,001,585 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $186,107,000 after purchasing an additional 874,175 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Global Payments by 2.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,955,393 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $191,451,000 after purchasing an additional 49,029 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Global Payments by 0.6% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,624,288 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $159,050,000 after purchasing an additional 9,755 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Global Payments by 6.1% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $140,402,000 after purchasing an additional 84,285 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GPN. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Global Payments from $79.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group increased their price target on Global Payments from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. TD Cowen downgraded Global Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. KeyCorp downgraded Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Global Payments currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.37.

Global Payments Trading Down 0.1%

GPN opened at $87.42 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $86.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.91. The company has a market capitalization of $21.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.28, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.98. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.93 and a 52 week high of $120.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.04. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.47% and a net margin of 15.07%.The company had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. Global Payments’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 12th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 17.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Global Payments news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $172,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,641,318. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

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.