Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Raises Position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,193 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,291 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Shift4 Payments were worth $601,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FOUR. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 34.3% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,451,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,031,000 after buying an additional 881,216 shares in the last quarter. Kodai Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $59,520,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 72.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Scout Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the first quarter worth about $34,108,000. Finally, Foxhaven Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $38,879,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $96.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.11.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

FOUR opened at $86.95 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 52-week low of $42.91 and a 52-week high of $92.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $75.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.94. The company has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.64.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $320.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $314.10 million. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 3.64% and a return on equity of 24.19%. Shift4 Payments’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.30, for a total value of $1,626,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 182,959 shares in the company, valued at $14,874,566.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.30, for a total value of $1,626,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 182,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,874,566.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jordan Frankel sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total transaction of $1,032,125.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 228,021 shares in the company, valued at $18,827,693.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 30.57% of the company’s stock.

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.