Tradewinds LLC. Buys Shares of 7,000 Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Tradewinds LLC. bought a new stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 7,000 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $685,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth $725,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 68.6% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 9,608 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,077,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 3,308.8% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,852 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $432,000 after purchasing an additional 3,739 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,942,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in Global Payments by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 73,901 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $8,281,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on GPN shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $105.00 to $77.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Barclays decreased their target price on Global Payments from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, April 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on Global Payments in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $85.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $110.91.

Global Payments Trading Down 1.9%

Global Payments stock traded down $1.54 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $80.32. The stock had a trading volume of 340,492 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,504,645. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.93 and a 52-week high of $120.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $78.16 and a 200 day moving average of $92.58. The firm has a market cap of $19.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

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

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. 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.