Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $33.01 Million Stock Holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 294,593 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,544 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of Global Payments worth $33,012,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 13.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 349,457 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Global Payments by 65.6% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,982,496 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $203,047,000 after buying an additional 785,539 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Global Payments in the third quarter valued at approximately $562,000. Caprock Group LLC boosted its position in Global Payments by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $259,000 after buying an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Poplar Forest Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Global Payments in the third quarter valued at approximately $13,184,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GPN. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Global Payments from $166.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stephens lowered shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Global Payments news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. acquired 5,800 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $116.00 per share, for a total transaction of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,957,608. This represents a 15.70 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Trading Down 2.3 %

NYSE:GPN opened at $103.19 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.70, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $109.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.82. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $91.60 and a 12 month high of $140.38.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last posted 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). The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. Analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders 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 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 16.18%.

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.