Global Payments Inc (GPN): Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up

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Consequently, key money managers have jumped into Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN) headfirst. LMR Partners, managed by Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold, assembled the most valuable position in Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN). LMR Partners had $8.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital also initiated a $2.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new GPN positions are Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Simon Sadler’s Segantii Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN) but similarly valued. These stocks are Sabre Corp (NASDAQ:SABR), News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS), Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE:LUK), and Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to GPN’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
SABR 34 848653 -1
NWS 15 402772 -5
LUK 27 748075 -3
ABX 40 937591 -2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 29 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $734 million, compared to $550 million in GPN’s case. Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) is the most popular stock in this table with 40 funds holding its shares. On the other hand News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ABX might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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