Brown Financial Advisors Cuts Stock Holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Brown Financial Advisors cut its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 659 shares during the period. Brown Financial Advisors’ holdings in Global Payments were worth $882,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 26,946 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,760,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Sage Capital Advisors llc grew its position in Global Payments by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 28,232 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,164,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. SYM FINANCIAL Corp increased its stake in Global Payments by 4.1% during the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 2,440 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $250,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust raised its position in Global Payments by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,068 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its position in Global Payments by 27.2% in the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 543 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Global Payments

In related news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. acquired 5,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $116.00 per share, for a total transaction of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,957,608. The trade was a 15.70 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Global Payments Price Performance

Shares of GPN opened at $103.83 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.80, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $109.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $109.00. Global Payments Inc. has a twelve month low of $91.60 and a twelve month high of $140.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 15.54% and a return on equity of 12.21%. Equities analysts forecast that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.18%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GPN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $118.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.