Global Payments Inc. $GPN Shares Sold by Earnest Partners LLC

Key Points

• Earnest Partners LLC sold 20,387 shares of Global Payments Inc., reducing its holdings by 2.7%, leaving them with approximately 0.30% of the company valued at $72.65 million.
• Global Payments reported a quarterly EPS of $3.10, surpassing analysts' expectations, with revenues unchanged at $2.36 billion year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, with a yield of 1.1%, to be paid on September 26th to stockholders of record on September 12th.

Earnest Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 741,931 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 20,387 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC owned about 0.30% of Global Payments worth $72,650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.4% during the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,334,097 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $816,075,000 after acquiring an additional 35,251 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in Global Payments by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,906,444 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $325,698,000 after buying an additional 259,590 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Global Payments by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,730,471 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $305,977,000 after buying an additional 305,987 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Global Payments by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,955,393 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $191,451,000 after buying an additional 49,029 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Global Payments by 40.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,656,830 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $185,664,000 after purchasing an additional 479,791 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Global Payments 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 value of $172,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,641,318. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GPN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Mizuho upgraded Global Payments from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $86.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Friday, July 25th. TD Cowen lowered Global Payments from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. UBS Group upped their price objective on Global Payments from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. B. Riley reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Global Payments from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $112.21.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN stock traded up $0.66 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $88.88. The stock had a trading volume of 1,818,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,606,411. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $82.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.06. 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 company has a market cap of $21.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.96. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.93 and a 52-week high of $120.00.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.93 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.48%.

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.