Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

GPN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Monday, March 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $88.00 price target on the stock. Argus cut their price target on shares of Global Payments from $100.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Global Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Global Payments from $90.00 to $76.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Global Payments presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.52.

Global Payments Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE GPN opened at $67.55 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -33.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $69.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $74.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 0.79. Global Payments has a 52-week low of $62.45 and a 52-week high of $90.64.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.82 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.81 billion. Global Payments had a negative net margin of 7.99% and a positive return on equity of 13.11%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.82 earnings per share. Global Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.800-14.000 EPS. Analysts expect that Global Payments will post 13.89 EPS for the current year.

Global Payments Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is currently -49.02%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Global Payments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Gtcr LLC acquired a new position in shares of Global Payments in the first quarter valued at about $2,911,939,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,542,460 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,955,908,000 after acquiring an additional 149,441 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.8% in the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,615,577 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $781,728,000 after acquiring an additional 205,880 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 7.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,349,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $610,633,000 after acquiring an additional 499,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glenview Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Global Payments by 13.8% in the second quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC now owns 4,316,892 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $345,524,000 after acquiring an additional 523,209 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.