Leavell Investment Management Inc. Cuts Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 9.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 76,705 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 8,173 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Global Payments were worth $7,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GPN. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $725,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Global Payments by 3,308.8% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,852 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $432,000 after buying an additional 3,739 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,942,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,700,000. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC purchased a new stake in Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $200,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GPN. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Global Payments from $105.00 to $77.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Cowen lowered shares of Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Williams Trading set a $75.00 price target on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Friday, April 18th. Wolfe Research reiterated a "peer perform" rating on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Global Payments from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $111.09.

Global Payments Stock Down 2.9%

GPN traded down $2.35 on Friday, reaching $78.88. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,334,705 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,506,638. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $78.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $91.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market capitalization of $19.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.94. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.93 and a fifty-two week high of $120.00.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.73 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.33% and a net margin of 15.48%. The company's revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.59 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Global Payments's payout ratio is currently 16.13%.

Global Payments Company 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.