Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Invests $50,000 in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 488 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Global Payments by 194.2% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of Global Payments by 0.3% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,797,677 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $639,967,000 after purchasing an additional 12,196 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 10.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,957,914 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $189,307,000 after purchasing an additional 193,137 shares in the last quarter. Davis Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Global Payments by 18.2% in the second quarter. Davis Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,300,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $125,710,000 after purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Global Payments by 188.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,728 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $109,857,000 after buying an additional 755,898 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Global Payments

In related news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total transaction of $166,305.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,068,087.63. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of GPN opened at $99.88 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.98. Global Payments Inc. has a 52 week low of $91.60 and a 52 week high of $141.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $105.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $105.26.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.48 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.84%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Global Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BNP Paribas raised Global Payments to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Global Payments from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Global Payments from $111.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.65.

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.