State of Michigan Retirement System Sells 11,900 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

State of Michigan Retirement System lessened its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 14.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 72,078 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 11,900 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System's holdings in Global Payments were worth $7,058,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Global Payments by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 9,039 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $885,000 after acquiring an additional 951 shares during the period. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI raised its stake in Global Payments by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 14,760 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,445,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Global Payments by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,055 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,278,000 after acquiring an additional 669 shares during the period. Sierra Capital LLC raised its stake in Global Payments by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Sierra Capital LLC now owns 2,780 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $272,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. Finally, Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 5.9% during the first quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 134,234 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $13,142,000 after buying an additional 7,437 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GPN. B. Riley reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada cut shares of Global Payments from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $86.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $75.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, April 18th. Finally, Cowen cut shares of Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $111.36.

Global Payments Trading Up 6.5%

NYSE GPN traded up $5.08 on Wednesday, hitting $82.69. 3,996,647 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,506,623. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $78.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $91.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.94. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.73 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.48% and a return on equity of 12.33%. Global Payments's quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.59 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.