Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Seaport Res Ptn cut Global Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays dropped their price target on Global Payments from $145.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reduced their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Global Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $136.57.

Global Payments Stock Performance

NYSE GPN opened at $114.83 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $29.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.63, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Global Payments has a 12-month low of $91.60 and a 12-month high of $141.77.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.83%.

Institutional Trading of Global Payments

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Virtu Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 79.4% in the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 32,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,288,000 after purchasing an additional 14,212 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 337,378 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,554,000 after buying an additional 1,116 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,071,000 after buying an additional 1,543 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,928,445 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $605,078,000 after acquiring an additional 31,934 shares during the period. Finally, MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Global Payments by 12.4% during the third quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 25,169 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,000 after acquiring an additional 2,779 shares during the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.