Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Invests $444,000 in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,390 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $444,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Global Payments in the fourth quarter valued at $2,774,000. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in Global Payments by 406.6% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 12,381 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,572,000 after purchasing an additional 9,937 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in Global Payments by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 26,425 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,356,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 25.7% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 112,996 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,350,000 after acquiring an additional 23,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. boosted its position in shares of Global Payments by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 32,774 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,162,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on GPN shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Global Payments from $182.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Global Payments from $111.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded Global Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Mizuho cut their target price on Global Payments from $129.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on Global Payments from $152.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.48.

Global Payments Stock Performance

NYSE:GPN remained flat at $108.65 during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 169,252 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,283,702. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $113.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Global Payments Inc. has a one year low of $91.60 and a one year high of $141.77. The company has a market capitalization of $27.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.98.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The business services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 13.40%. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Global Payments Inc. will post 11.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.84%.

Insider Activity

In other Global Payments news, CAO David M. Sheffield sold 1,651 shares of Global Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.73, for a total value of $166,305.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,531 shares in the company, valued at $2,068,087.63. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

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.