Callahan Advisors LLC Sells 53,516 Shares of Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Key Points

• Callahan Advisors LLC significantly reduced its stake in Global Payments Inc. by 67.3%, selling 53,516 shares and now owning 26,039 shares valued at approximately $2.08 million.
• Institutional investors now hold 89.76% of Global Payments' stock, with several firms, including Pzena Investment Management and New York State Teachers Retirement System, increasing their holdings substantially during the second quarter.
• Global Payments reported a quarterly earnings per share of $3.10, beating analyst expectations, and recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, representing an annual yield of 1.2%.

Callahan Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 67.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,039 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 53,516 shares during the quarter. Callahan Advisors LLC's holdings in Global Payments were worth $2,084,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Global Payments by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 227,271 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $18,191,000 after buying an additional 3,492 shares during the last quarter. Equitable Trust Co. raised its holdings in Global Payments by 194.3% in the 2nd quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 53,896 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $4,314,000 after buying an additional 35,583 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Global Payments by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 84,190 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $6,739,000 after buying an additional 7,161 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Global Payments by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 33,587 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,688,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Global Payments by 32.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,050,253 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $884,462,000 after buying an additional 2,716,156 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Global Payments news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $172,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 30,713 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,641,318. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Global Payments Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of GPN opened at $86.19 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $86.17 and a 200 day moving average of $82.11. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.93 and a fifty-two week high of $120.00. The firm has a market cap of $20.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.47% and a net margin of 15.07%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 12th. Global Payments's payout ratio is presently 17.48%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on GPN shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. B. Riley reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Global Payments from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $103.75.

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.

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