Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Buys New Holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 39,915 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,473,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter valued at $345,823,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,659,984 shares during the period. Contour Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at $147,695,000. Focused Investors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the 4th quarter valued at $99,969,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1,559.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 548,833 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $61,502,000 after purchasing an additional 515,763 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GPN shares. StockNews.com upgraded Global Payments from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on 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. TD Cowen lowered Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Global Payments from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Global Payments from $145.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $112.43.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of GPN traded down $0.61 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $82.37. The stock had a trading volume of 3,610,994 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,461,547. The company's 50-day moving average is $85.32 and its 200 day moving average is $101.74. Global Payments Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.93 and a 12-month high of $120.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market capitalization of $20.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.96.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.20 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. Global Payments's quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.59 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.