Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Takes $1.57 Million Position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS acquired a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 15,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,574,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in Shift4 Payments by 69.4% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 12,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,335,000 after acquiring an additional 5,268 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans bought a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,677,000. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in Shift4 Payments by 97.7% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 3,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $345,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 356.0% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 86,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,925,000 after purchasing an additional 67,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 114.3% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 15,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,635,000 after purchasing an additional 8,403 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shift4 Payments Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of Shift4 Payments stock opened at $86.64 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $7.72 billion, a PE ratio of 28.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $104.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.01. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.87 and a 1 year high of $127.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 2.97.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share 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 research analysts predict that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Shift4 Payments

In other news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total transaction of $849,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,094,317.56. This represents a 5.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 264,856 shares in the company, valued at $24,287,295.20. This trade represents a 0.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. 30.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $112.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Monday, February 3rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $109.00 to $107.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $112.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Shift4 Payments currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $115.30.

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.