Geometric Wealth Advisors Buys New Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Geometric Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,242 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $363,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in 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 valued at $929,969,000 after buying an additional 1,659,984 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Global Payments by 65.6% during 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 during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Global Payments by 1,559.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 548,833 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $61,502,000 after buying an additional 515,763 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Global Payments by 22.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $271,090,000 after buying an additional 490,411 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Global Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,700,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GPN. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price objective (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $149.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley reduced 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 note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.33.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN stock opened at $97.06 on Tuesday. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $140.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.18%.

Insider Transactions at Global Payments

In other news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. bought 5,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $116.00 per share, for a total transaction of $672,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,957,608. The trade was a 15.70 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

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.