Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Takes Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. bought a new position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,757 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $421,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the 4th quarter worth about $282,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,708 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in Global Payments by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 7,358 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $825,000 after buying an additional 1,604 shares during the period. Finally, Retireful LLC raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 231.0% in the 4th quarter. Retireful LLC now owns 19,716 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,209,000 after purchasing an additional 13,760 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GPN shares. Wolfe Research restated a "peer perform" rating on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $145.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. 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 for the company. in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, April 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $112.43.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of GPN stock traded down $1.60 during trading on Monday, hitting $80.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,686,824 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,462,448. The company has a market cap of $19.70 billion, a PE ratio of 13.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.96. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $85.32 and a 200-day moving average of $101.74. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.73 by $0.09. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The company had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.59 earnings per share. Global Payments's revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. Global Payments's payout ratio is 16.13%.

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.