Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) Short Interest Update

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,100,000 shares, a decrease of 10.8% from the January 15th total of 6,840,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,760,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. bought 5,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 42,738 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,957,608. The trade was a 15.70 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Global Payments

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,995,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,800,952,000 after purchasing an additional 179,195 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 8,298,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $929,969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,659,984 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,230,322 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $696,362,000 after purchasing an additional 301,877 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $564,437,000 after purchasing an additional 83,481 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth approximately $345,823,000. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Stock Performance

NYSE:GPN traded up $1.37 on Tuesday, hitting $107.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,708,297 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,729,932. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $110.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $108.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.01. Global Payments has a one year low of $91.60 and a one year high of $140.38.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 13.61% and a return on equity of 11.94%. Research analysts predict that Global Payments will post 11 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.93%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is 18.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GPN shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America decreased their target price on Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 target price (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Stephens cut Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Global Payments currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.33.

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.