Vanguard Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 9.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,539,486 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 562,774 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 7.26% of Shift4 Payments worth $678,668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 775 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Shift4 Payments by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $419,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the period. MRP Capital Investments LLC lifted its stake in Shift4 Payments by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $280,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in Shift4 Payments by 153.9% during the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 67.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

FOUR opened at $84.50 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. The company has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.20. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 12-month low of $55.87 and a 12-month high of $127.50.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 6.89% and a return on equity of 29.00%. The company had revenue of $405.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. Research analysts predict that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FOUR. Bank of America lowered Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $112.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Monday, February 3rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of Shift4 Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $140.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $115.30.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total transaction of $849,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares in the company, valued at $15,094,317.56. This trade represents a 5.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total value of $229,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 264,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,287,295.20. This represents a 0.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,695 shares of company stock worth $1,097,380. Insiders own 30.57% 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.