Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR)

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $143.00 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $120.00. Piper Sandler’s target price indicates a potential upside of 44.76% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on FOUR. Bank of America lowered shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $112.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Benchmark lowered shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $90.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Shift4 Payments from $118.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.19.

Shift4 Payments Trading Down 4.7 %

Shares of FOUR stock opened at $98.79 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $110.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.43. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.71. The stock has a market cap of $8.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.18, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.72. Shift4 Payments has a twelve month low of $55.87 and a twelve month high of $127.50.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $405.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 6.89% and a return on equity of 29.38%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jordan Frankel sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 222,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,991,309.12. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,462 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.07, for a total value of $147,764.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,748,585.23. This trade represents a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,462 shares of company stock worth $1,211,364. Company insiders own 30.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 153.9% in the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. acquired a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Waldron Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.