Global Payments Inc. $GPN Shares Sold by Alyeska Investment Group L.P.

Key Points

• Alyeska Investment Group L.P. reduced its stake in Global Payments Inc. by 48.3%, now holding 198,252 shares valued at approximately $19.4 million.
• Analysts have a mixed outlook on Global Payments, with ten analysts rating it as a "Buy" and nineteen issuing a "Hold" rating, suggesting varying confidence in the stock's future performance.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share with a dividend yield of 1.1%, indicating a commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Alyeska Investment Group L.P. cut its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 48.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 198,252 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 185,228 shares during the quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. owned 0.08% of Global Payments worth $19,413,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.4% in 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 buying an additional 35,251 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,906,444 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $325,698,000 after buying an additional 259,590 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 77.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,001,585 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $186,107,000 after buying an additional 874,175 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 2.6% in 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 buying an additional 49,029 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 40.8% in the fourth 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 valued at $185,664,000 after buying an additional 479,791 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on GPN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Global Payments from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Global Payments from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. TD Cowen downgraded Global Payments from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Global Payments from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on Global Payments from $79.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nineteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $112.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of the company'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 transaction, the general counsel directly owned 30,713 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,641,318. This represents a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.01% of the company's stock.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN traded down $0.35 during trading on Monday, reaching $87.43. The company had a trading volume of 1,782,257 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,754,552. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.93 and a twelve month high of $120.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.21 billion, a PE ratio of 15.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $83.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.