Global Payments Inc. $GPN Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 4.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 279,993 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 11,596 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.10% of Global Payments worth $18,844,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG lifted its stake in shares of Global Payments by 11.8% during the first quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG now owns 12,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,305 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 103.4% in the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,054 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $330,000 after buying an additional 2,569 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Global Payments during the 1st quarter valued at about $204,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its holdings in shares of Global Payments by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 55,435 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,731,000 after buying an additional 367 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in Global Payments by 223.1% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 53,291 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,586,000 after acquiring an additional 36,799 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GPN has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and set a $74.00 target price (down from $86.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $81.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Global Payments in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set a “market perform” rating and a $76.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nineteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.33.

Global Payments Price Performance

GPN stock opened at $79.07 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $71.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $71.92. Global Payments Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.16 and a 52-week high of $90.64. The company has a market capitalization of $21.63 billion, a PE ratio of -38.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.82 by $0.14. Global Payments had a positive return on equity of 13.11% and a negative net margin of 7.99%.The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.81 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.82 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 63.1% on a year-over-year basis. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. Analysts predict that Global Payments Inc. will post 13.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Global Payments’s dividend payout ratio is -49.02%.

Global Payments Company Profile

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.