Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Has $12.50 Million Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 111,502 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,694 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $12,495,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 25.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,659,984 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 785,539 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Global Payments by 1,559.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 515,763 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 22.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 490,411 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Global Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,700,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price 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. Stephens downgraded shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price objective (down previously from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, 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 report on Monday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.33.

Global Payments Stock Performance

NYSE GPN opened at $97.03 on Friday. Global Payments Inc. has a 1 year low of $90.99 and a 1 year high of $136.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market cap of $23.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.70, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $104.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $107.70.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued 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 company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

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

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.