Ga. firm paying $4.3B for Heartland Payment Systems

GPN stock price has outperformed the S&P 500 by 61.7%.

Heartland Payment Systems gapped open dramatically higher Wednesday, but traded in a range for the majority of the session. Heartland Payment Systems was the topic in 19 analyst reports since August 4, 2015 according to StockzIntelligence Inc.

With Global Payments planning to finance the deal with debt, the company will need to hit its synergy targets and raise the profitability of Heartland in order for the additional interest payments to not wipe out Heartland’s earnings. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $68.00 price target (up previously from $65.00) on shares of Global Payments in a research note on Wednesday. (NYSE:HPY) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Analyst Ratings.Net reports. The company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $79.63. Other stocks from the financial transaction services space that appear impressive are Fiserv, Inc. Cowen and Company now has a $78.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $70.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 15,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,124,578. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Green David Lawrence sold 3,750 shares worth approximately $428,589. Credit Agricole raised Global Payments from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 772,742 shares. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.47 billion and a PE ratio of 82.998.

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $69.92 and its 200-day moving average is $59.87. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.76.

Mechel OAO (MTL) soared 6.3% to 89.4 cents after the Russia-focused mining, steel and power conglomerate said revenues in the nine-month period ending in September plunged 35% from a year ago to $3.28 billion.

The company forecasted revenues for the second-quarter to jump 4% to $722 million compared to $697 million and GAAP earnings per share of about 60 cents from 55 cents in the same period a year ago.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 13th were issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. On a consensus basis this yields to an Overweight rating. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 10th.

Meanwhile, Heartland, based in Princeton, N.J., offers payment-processing services for merchants and education providers, including higher-education loan services and school-nutrition programs.

Robbins Arroyo LLP’s investigation focuses on whether the board of directors at Heartland Payment Systems is undertaking a fair process to obtain maximum value and adequately compensate its shareholders.