Global Payments Inc. $GPN Stake Lessened by Equitable Trust Co.

Key Points

• Equitable Trust Co. cut its stake by 41.9% in Global Payments to 47,187 shares (worth $3.65 million) after selling 34,009 shares in Q4.
• Meanwhile, several large funds (e.g., Balyasny, Assenagon, Glenview, Ameriprise) substantially increased holdings, leaving institutional investors owning about 89.76% of the stock.
• GPN shares opened at $69.51 (down ~3.2%), market cap ~$19.1B; the company slightly beat EPS expectations ($3.18 vs $3.16), gave FY2026 EPS guidance of 13.80–14.00, pays a $0.25 quarterly dividend (1.4% yield), and carries a consensus "Hold" rating with a $86.20 price target.

Equitable Trust Co. cut its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 41.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,187 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 34,009 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co.'s holdings in Global Payments were worth $3,652,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GPN. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 112.3% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,281,476 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $189,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206,807 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 117.3% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,207,277 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $93,443,000 after acquiring an additional 651,671 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 126.9% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,019,788 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $84,724,000 after acquiring an additional 570,413 shares during the last quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 13.8% in the second quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC now owns 4,316,892 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $345,524,000 after acquiring an additional 523,209 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 7.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,349,876 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $610,633,000 after acquiring an additional 499,695 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Global Payments Stock Down 3.2%

GPN stock opened at $69.51 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.69. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.45 and a 52-week high of $90.64. The company has a 50-day moving average of $70.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 0.75.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The business services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.16 by $0.02. Global Payments had a net margin of 16.92% and a return on equity of 12.72%. The company had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.85 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 13.73 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio is 17.27%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GPN. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $91.00 to $86.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $97.00 to $82.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $85.00 to $81.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Global Payments from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Global Payments currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $86.20.

Global Payments Company Profile

Global Payments Inc NYSE: GPN is a worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions that enables commerce for merchants, issuers and enterprises. The company develops and operates payment processing networks, point-of-sale systems and cloud-based software that facilitate electronic transactions across in-store, online and mobile channels. Its services span merchant acquiring, payment gateway services, omnichannel commerce platforms, and solutions for recurring and subscription billing.

Global Payments offers a range of products and services including integrated payment terminals and point-of-sale software, e-commerce and gateway technologies, fraud prevention and tokenization tools, and business analytics and reporting.

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