Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Rating Increased 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 report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $140.00 price objective on the stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Shift4 Payments in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $120.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $112.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $143.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.30.

Shift4 Payments Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of FOUR opened at $89.25 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.07, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76. Shift4 Payments has a 52 week low of $55.87 and a 52 week high of $127.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $108.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.45. The company has a quick ratio of 2.97, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jordan Frankel sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.01, for a total value of $495,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 222,112 shares in the company, valued at $21,991,309.12. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 30.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Shift4 Payments

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 50.8% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 5,883,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,250,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,940 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,539,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $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 during the 4th quarter valued at $39,222,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 2,510,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,489,000 after purchasing an additional 367,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.