Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $140.00 target price on the stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on FOUR. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Shift4 Payments in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Benchmark downgraded Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Shift4 Payments from $140.00 to $124.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $143.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $115.30.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

Shift4 Payments stock opened at $89.25 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 2.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $108.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.45. Shift4 Payments has a one year low of $55.87 and a one year high of $127.50. The company has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a PE ratio of 29.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.06. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 6.89%. The firm had revenue of $405.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Shift4 Payments news, insider Jordan Frankel sold 5,000 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.01, for a total transaction of $495,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 222,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,991,309.12. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 30.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its stake in Shift4 Payments by 50.8% in the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 5,883,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,250,000 after buying an additional 1,980,940 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Shift4 Payments by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,539,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $678,668,000 after buying an additional 562,774 shares during the last quarter. Cat Rock Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,222,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Shift4 Payments by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 2,510,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,489,000 after purchasing an additional 367,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 41.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,198,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,689,000 after buying an additional 350,703 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.