Short Interest in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Expands By 62.6%

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,920,000 shares, an increase of 62.6% from the May 15th total of 7,330,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,560,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days. Currently, 4.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Global Payments

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GPN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth $345,823,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,659,984 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Global Payments by 75,379.7% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,517,141 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $148,558,000 after acquiring an additional 1,515,131 shares in the last quarter. Contour Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments in the 4th quarter worth approximately $147,695,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Global Payments in the first quarter valued at approximately $94,107,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GPN shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Global Payments from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $75.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, April 18th. Cowen downgraded Global Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Global Payments from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered Global Payments from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $86.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, April 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $110.91.

Global Payments Trading Down 4.7%

Shares of NYSE:GPN traded down $3.70 during trading on Friday, reaching $74.59. The stock had a trading volume of 1,989,038 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,477,633. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $78.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $96.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $18.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.07, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.93. Global Payments has a fifty-two week low of $65.93 and a fifty-two week high of $120.00.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.73 by $0.09. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.59 EPS. The company's revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Global Payments will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.34%. Global Payments's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.13%.

About Global Payments

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.

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