Short Interest in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) Increases By 24.7%

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,230,000 shares, an increase of 24.7% from the February 28th total of 6,600,000 shares. Approximately 13.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,750,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.7 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total value of $229,250.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 264,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,287,295.20. This trade represents a 0.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 177,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,094,317.56. This represents a 5.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,695 shares of company stock worth $1,097,380. Insiders own 30.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 9.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Cat Rock Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,222,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 2,510,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,489,000 after acquiring an additional 367,500 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted 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 worth $127,689,000 after acquiring an additional 350,703 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Shift4 Payments by 84.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 520,990 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,068,000 after purchasing an additional 238,478 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of Shift4 Payments stock opened at $85.86 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $7.65 billion, a PE ratio of 27.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76. 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 has a 52 week low of $55.87 and a 52 week high of $127.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $101.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.12.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $109.00 to $107.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $140.00 to $124.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Shift4 Payments from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Raymond James upgraded Shift4 Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $140.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Shift4 Payments from $142.00 to $135.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.80.

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.