Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 7,456 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 234,940 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,456 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC owned about 0.09% of Global Payments worth $26,327,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 9,850 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,009,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 8,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 93.5% in the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,596,000 after acquiring an additional 7,529 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Global Payments by 19.6% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 50,848 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,208,000 after acquiring an additional 8,320 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in Global Payments by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 36,436 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,732,000 after acquiring an additional 1,838 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $138.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Barclays dropped their price target 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, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price target (down previously from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Stephens cut shares of Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.33.

Global Payments Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE:GPN opened at $95.82 on Tuesday. 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 $23.73 billion, a PE ratio of 15.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $105.70 and its 200 day moving average is $108.06. Global Payments Inc. has a 12 month low of $90.99 and a 12 month high of $136.36.

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). Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.21% and a net margin of 15.54%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is 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.