Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Sees Large Volume Increase on Analyst Upgrade

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Thursday after Benchmark upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. Approximately 3,187,914 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 93% from the previous session’s volume of 1,649,556 shares.The stock last traded at $81.49 and had previously closed at $81.80.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Shift4 Payments from $143.00 to $113.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $117.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $109.00 to $107.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, BTIG Research dropped their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Shift4 Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.38.

Insider Activity

In other Shift4 Payments news, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total transaction of $229,250.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 264,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,287,295.20. The trade was a 0.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total value of $849,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,094,317.56. This trade represents a 5.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,695 shares of company stock worth $1,097,380 in the last 90 days. 30.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Moody National Bank Trust Division grew its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 86.5% during the 4th quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 15,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,645,000 after buying an additional 7,349 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter valued at $812,000. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 4,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $480,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $328,000. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in Shift4 Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $358,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $7.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.62, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.35.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $368.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $886.09 million. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 6.89% and a return on equity of 29.00%. Shift4 Payments’s revenue was up 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.54 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Shift4 Payments

Shift4 Payments, Inc (NYSE FOUR) provides integrated payment processing and technology solutions in the United States. Its payments platform provides omni-channel card acceptance and processing solutions, including end-to-end payment processing for various payment types; merchant acquiring; proprietary omni-channel gateway; complementary software integrations; integrated and mobile point-of-sale (POS) solutions; security and risk management solutions; and reporting and analytical tools, as well as tokenization, risk management/underwriting, payment device and chargeback management, fraud prevention, and gift card solutions.