Barclays Lowers Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Price Target to $160.00

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) had its target price reduced by Barclays from $170.00 to $160.00 in a report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on GPN. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Global Payments from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $154.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Global Payments from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $151.92.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Global Payments stock opened at $122.13 on Tuesday. Global Payments has a 12-month low of $95.12 and a 12-month high of $141.77. The company has a market capitalization of $31.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $130.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.23.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The business services provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Global Payments had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The company’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.30 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Global Payments will post 10.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is currently 26.46%.

Institutional Trading of Global Payments

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 12,528,048 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,591,064,000 after acquiring an additional 650,274 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 1.3% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,819,457 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,138,638,000 after acquiring an additional 134,403 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.7% during the third 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. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 40.5% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,142,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $591,613,000 after acquiring an additional 1,481,714 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,087,801 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $646,151,000 after acquiring an additional 132,635 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.