LPL Financial LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 9.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 138,024 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 11,594 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.06% of Global Payments worth $13,515,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GPN. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new position in shares of Global Payments during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in Global Payments by 546.6% during the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 375 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Global Payments by 4,866.7% during the first 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. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GPN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $75.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, April 18th. Cowen cut shares of Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. TD Cowen raised shares of Global Payments from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $84.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 14th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and set a $100.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Global Payments currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $112.00.

Global Payments Stock Performance

GPN traded down $3.65 during trading on Thursday, hitting $81.89. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,434,379 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,511,954. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $79.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.97. The firm has a market cap of $19.97 billion, a PE ratio of 14.32, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.93. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $65.93 and a one year high of $120.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion during 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%. Global Payments's revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th will be paid 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 16.13%.

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.