State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Sells 1,650 Shares of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D cut its stake in Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 91,588 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,650 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Global Payments were worth $10,263,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in Global Payments by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 26,946 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,760,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Sage Capital Advisors llc grew its position in Global Payments by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 28,232 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,164,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. SYM FINANCIAL Corp grew its position in Global Payments by 4.1% during the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 2,440 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust grew its position in Global Payments by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,068 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew its position in Global Payments by 27.2% during the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 543 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert H. B. Baldwin, Jr. purchased 5,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $116.00 per share, with a total value of $672,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 42,738 shares in the company, valued at $4,957,608. The trade was a 15.70 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Global Payments Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of Global Payments stock opened at $107.00 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $27.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.15, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $110.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $108.70. Global Payments Inc. has a 1 year low of $91.60 and a 1 year high of $140.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Global Payments had a return on equity of 11.94% and a net margin of 13.61%. As a group, research analysts expect that Global Payments Inc. will post 11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Payments Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Global Payments’s payout ratio is presently 18.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on GPN shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Global Payments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price target (down from $155.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $143.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Global Payments from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Global Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Global Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.33.

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.