Ieq Capital LLC Sells 18,891 Shares of Global Payments Inc. $GPN

Key Points

• Ieq Capital LLC reduced its stake in Global Payments Inc. by 40.7% during the first quarter, now holding 27,544 shares valued at approximately $2.7 million.
• General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares at an average price of $86.00, resulting in a total value of $172,000, indicating a 6.11% decrease in their position.
• The company reported a $3.10 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing the consensus estimate of $3.06, with a revenue increase of 1.6% compared to the same period last year.

Ieq Capital LLC cut its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 40.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,544 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 18,891 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC's holdings in Global Payments were worth $2,697,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 4,866.7% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 447 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. Tradewinds LLC. bought a new position in shares of Global Payments in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $685,000. Argyle Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 114.4% in the 1st quarter. Argyle Capital Management LLC now owns 18,305 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,792,000 after acquiring an additional 9,768 shares in the last quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. now owns 282,933 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $31,705,000 after acquiring an additional 8,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Malaga Cove Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 85.0% in the 1st quarter. Malaga Cove Capital LLC now owns 15,094 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,478,000 after acquiring an additional 6,933 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on GPN shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Global Payments from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. B. Riley restated a "buy" rating on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Mizuho upgraded Global Payments from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $86.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Truist Financial boosted 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Global Payments from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nineteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $112.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Global Payments

In other news, General Counsel Dara L. Steele-Belkin sold 2,000 shares of the business'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 completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 30,713 shares in the company, valued at $2,641,318. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Global Payments Price Performance

Global Payments stock traded down $0.31 on Wednesday, reaching $86.68. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,404,109 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,770,123. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $21.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.15, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.97. The business's fifty day moving average price is $83.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.96. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.93 and a twelve month high of $120.00.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion for 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 business's revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Global Payments's payout ratio is presently 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.