Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Price Target Lowered to $135.00 at Citigroup

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) had its target price dropped by Citigroup from $138.00 to $135.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the business services provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 26.17% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on GPN. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $118.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Stephens lowered shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.33.

Global Payments Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of GPN traded up $1.37 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $107.00. The company had a trading volume of 2,640,259 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,682,556. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $110.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $108.70. Global Payments has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $140.38. The company has a market capitalization of $27.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.01.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.14). Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.94% and a net margin of 13.61%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Global Payments will post 11 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Global Payments

In other news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. bought 5,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,957,608. This represents a 15.70 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,949,458 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $330,516,000 after buying an additional 349,457 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 65.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,982,496 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $203,047,000 after buying an additional 785,539 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in Global Payments in the 3rd quarter worth $562,000. Caprock Group LLC boosted its holdings in Global Payments by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after buying an additional 206 shares during the period. Finally, Poplar Forest Capital LLC bought a new position in Global Payments in the 3rd quarter worth $13,184,000. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Company 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.