William Blair Begins Coverage on Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR)

Analysts at William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating on the stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on FOUR. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 10th. Wedbush began coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Friday, May 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $75.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Shift4 Payments from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.44.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

FOUR stock opened at $77.45 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $73.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $70.70. Shift4 Payments has a 52-week low of $42.91 and a 52-week high of $92.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.98, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.64.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.09. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 24.19% and a net margin of 3.64%. The business had revenue of $320.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $314.10 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.58 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 40.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Shift4 Payments

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 34.3% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,451,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,031,000 after acquiring an additional 881,216 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 11.3% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,314,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,800,000 after purchasing an additional 235,355 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 11,776.9% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,730,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,947,000 after purchasing an additional 1,716,132 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 21.7% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,434,890 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,803,000 after buying an additional 255,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 72.8% in the first quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,333,252 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,088,000 after buying an additional 561,707 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shift4 Payments Company Profile

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.