Analyzing Worldline (OTCMKTS:WWLNF) & Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR)

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) and Worldline (OTCMKTS:WWLNF) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Shift4 Payments and Worldline, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shift4 Payments	0	7	13	0	2.65
Worldline	0	2	0	1	2.67

Shift4 Payments presently has a consensus price target of $115.05, suggesting a potential upside of 19.62%. Given Shift4 Payments’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Shift4 Payments is more favorable than Worldline.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.9% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by institutional investors. 30.6% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Shift4 Payments has a beta of 1.72, meaning that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Worldline has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Shift4 Payments and Worldline”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shift4 Payments	$3.33 billion	2.60	$86.20 million	$3.07	31.33
Worldline	$4.99 billion	0.45	-$884.56 million	N/A	N/A

Shift4 Payments has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Worldline.

Profitability

This table compares Shift4 Payments and Worldline’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shift4 Payments	6.89%	29.00%	6.69%
Worldline	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Shift4 Payments beats Worldline on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company also offers suite of technology solutions, such as Lighthouse, a cloud-based business intelligence tool that includes customer engagement, social media management, online reputation management, scheduling, and product pricing, as well as reporting and analytics; integrated POS for merchants business; and Skytab, a mobile payment solution. In addition, it provides marketplace technology that enable seamless integrations into third-party applications, which includes online delivery services, payroll, timekeeping, and other human resource services. Further, the company offers merchant management, training and education, marketing management, and incentives tracking solutions. Additionally, it provides merchant underwriting, onboarding and activation, training, risk management, and support services; and software integrations and compliance management, and partner support and services. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

About Worldline

Worldline SA provides payments and transactional services to financial institutions, merchants, corporations, and government agencies in Northern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Merchant Services; Financial Services; and Mobility & e-Transactional Services segments. The Merchant Services segment offers commercial acquiring, terminal, omnichannel payment acceptance, and digital retail services. The Financial Services segment provides issuing processing, acquiring processing, digital banking, and account payments services. The Mobility & e-Transactional Services segment offers trusted digitization, e-ticketing, and e-consumer and mobility. The company was formerly known as Atos Worldline S.A.S. and changed its name to Worldline SA in April 2014. Worldline SA was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Puteaux, France.