Investors Buy Large Volume of Global Payments Call Options (NYSE:GPN)

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 10,198 call options on the company. This is an increase of 157% compared to the typical volume of 3,968 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Global Payments

In other Global Payments news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total transaction of $166,305.23. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,068,087.63. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Global Payments

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Global Payments by 194.2% during the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 6,423,463 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $621,149,000 after acquiring an additional 4,240,388 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 188.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,728 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $109,857,000 after purchasing an additional 755,898 shares in the last quarter. Natixis raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 830.2% during the first quarter. Natixis now owns 589,520 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $78,795,000 after acquiring an additional 526,143 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 267.0% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 677,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $90,602,000 after acquiring an additional 493,164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 316.7% during the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 609,939 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $58,981,000 after acquiring an additional 463,568 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on GPN. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Global Payments in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $147.00 target price on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Global Payments from $126.00 to $122.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Global Payments from $164.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $139.55.

Global Payments Stock Down 1.3 %

NYSE GPN traded down $1.31 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $99.11. 581,898 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,279,072. The company has a market cap of $25.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.92, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $105.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $107.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Global Payments has a 1-year low of $91.60 and a 1-year high of $141.77.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The business services provider reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.03. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.93% and a net margin of 14.26%. The company had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.48 EPS. Global Payments’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Global Payments will post 11.07 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.84%.

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.