Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Sells 25,200 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Free Report) by 6.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 396,100 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 25,200 shares during the quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC owned 0.15% of Global Payments worth $50,305,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GPN. FMR LLC lifted its position in Global Payments by 40.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,078,525,000 after buying an additional 2,703,434 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $261,300,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Global Payments by 338.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $379,416,000 after buying an additional 2,537,941 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the third quarter valued at approximately $197,875,000. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Global Payments by 40.5% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $591,613,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481,714 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GPN has been the subject of several research reports. Susquehanna raised their target price on Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Global Payments from $138.00 to $137.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 15th. TheStreet upgraded Global Payments from a "c" rating to a "b-" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Down 0.1 %

Global Payments stock traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $125.92. The company had a trading volume of 1,431,356 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,377,126. Global Payments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $95.12 and a fifty-two week high of $141.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.96. The firm's fifty day moving average is $132.62 and its 200-day moving average is $123.84.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.46%.

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.