Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Cut to Market Perform at Raymond James Financial

Raymond James Financial cut shares of Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports.

GPN has been the topic of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Global Payments from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $87.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $97.00 target price (up from $95.00) on shares of Global Payments in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Monday, March 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $88.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.18.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN stock opened at $65.96 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $73.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $78.16. The stock has a market cap of $18.16 billion, a PE ratio of 11.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. Global Payments has a 1 year low of $65.61 and a 1 year high of $99.99.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The business services provider reported $3.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.16 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 12.72% and a net margin of 16.92%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.85 earnings per share. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Global Payments will post 11.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Global Payments’s payout ratio is 17.27%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Global Payments

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GPN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Global Payments during the fourth quarter worth $276,014,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Global Payments by 112.3% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,281,476 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $189,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206,807 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 5,710.5% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 941,299 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $72,857,000 after acquiring an additional 925,099 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in shares of Global Payments by 93.8% in the 4th quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,412,128 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $109,299,000 after acquiring an additional 683,524 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 117.3% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,207,277 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $93,443,000 after purchasing an additional 651,671 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc (NYSE: GPN) is a worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions that enables commerce for merchants, issuers and enterprises. The company develops and operates payment processing networks, point-of-sale systems and cloud-based software that facilitate electronic transactions across in-store, online and mobile channels. Its services span merchant acquiring, payment gateway services, omnichannel commerce platforms, and solutions for recurring and subscription billing.

Global Payments offers a range of products and services including integrated payment terminals and point-of-sale software, e-commerce and gateway technologies, fraud prevention and tokenization tools, and business analytics and reporting.