Sapient Capital LLC Invests $881,000 in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 6,938 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $881,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GPN. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,346,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,525,000 after acquiring an additional 2,703,434 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Global Payments by 338.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,288,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $379,416,000 after purchasing an additional 2,537,941 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $197,875,000. Boston Partners increased its stake in Global Payments by 40.5% in the 3rd 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. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 119.0% in the 3rd quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,085,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $125,287,000 after purchasing an additional 590,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Global Payments from $182.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Global Payments from $143.00 to $128.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays decreased their price target on Global Payments from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Global Payments from $163.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $150.00.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.8 %

Global Payments stock traded up $0.83 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $111.37. The company had a trading volume of 3,191,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,029,470. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $127.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $124.69. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $95.12 and a 12 month high of $141.77. The company has a market capitalization of $28.43 billion, a PE ratio of 22.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.97.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 13.40%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is currently 19.84%.

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.