Empirical Finance LLC Has $1.02 Million Stock Position in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

Empirical Finance LLC cut its holdings in shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 132 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $1,019,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GPN. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Global Payments by 3.4% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 6,638,862 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $679,952,000 after acquiring an additional 215,399 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Global Payments by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,928,445 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $605,078,000 after purchasing an additional 31,934 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Global Payments by 1.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,499,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $564,437,000 after purchasing an additional 83,481 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Global Payments by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,949,458 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $330,516,000 after purchasing an additional 349,457 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Global Payments by 22.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,646,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $271,090,000 after buying an additional 490,411 shares in the last quarter. 89.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GPN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Global Payments from $118.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Global Payments from $156.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Global Payments from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Global Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $112.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Stephens downgraded Global Payments from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $135.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. acquired 5,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $116.00 per share, for a total transaction of $672,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 42,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,957,608. This trade represents a 15.70 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Global Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GPN opened at $109.53 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Global Payments Inc. has a 1-year low of $91.60 and a 1-year high of $141.77. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $112.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $108.44.

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.