Ameriprise Financial Inc. Trims Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lowered its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 3.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,255,292 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 221,672 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 2.85% of Global Payments worth $813,016,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GPN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,995,107 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $2,800,952,000 after buying an additional 179,195 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 25.0% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $929,969,000 after acquiring an additional 1,659,984 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,230,322 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $696,362,000 after purchasing an additional 301,877 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Global Payments by 1.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $564,437,000 after purchasing an additional 83,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Global Payments during the fourth quarter valued at $345,823,000. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPN traded down $0.40 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $78.88. The stock had a trading volume of 3,119,180 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,412,049. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $88.25 and a 200-day moving average of $102.79. Global Payments Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.93 and a 12-month high of $120.00. The company has a market capitalization of $19.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.97.

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 (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.59 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.18%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GPN shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Global Payments from $105.00 to $77.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Global Payments from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research reaffirmed a "peer perform" rating on shares of Global Payments in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Williams Trading set a $75.00 target price on shares of Global Payments in a report on Friday, April 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Global Payments from $145.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $112.09.

Global Payments 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.