Pacer Advisors Inc. Has $2.21 Million Stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Pacer Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 30.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,428 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 7,777 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Global Payments were worth $2,213,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in Global Payments by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,819,457 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,138,638,000 after buying an additional 134,403 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Global Payments by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,078,525,000 after acquiring an additional 2,703,434 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in Global Payments by 40.5% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $591,613,000 after acquiring an additional 1,481,714 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Global Payments by 24.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,518,268 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $370,263,000 after acquiring an additional 698,913 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Global Payments by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,499,860 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $403,849,000 after acquiring an additional 116,664 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on GPN shares. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Global Payments from a "c" rating to a "b-" rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $162.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $151.92.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of GPN traded up $1.89 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $133.66. The company had a trading volume of 2,350,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,550,695. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $133.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $34.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.36, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.96. Global Payments Inc. has a 12-month low of $95.12 and a 12-month high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The business's revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.30 EPS. Research analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio is presently 26.46%.

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.