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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FOUR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $142.00 to $135.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $154.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Raymond James upgraded Shift4 Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Barclays cut their target price on Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $113.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total value of $849,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,094,317.56. The trade was a 5.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,695 shares of company stock valued at $1,097,380 in the last three months. Company insiders own 30.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moody National Bank Trust Division lifted its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 86.5% in the 4th quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 15,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,645,000 after acquiring an additional 7,349 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new stake in Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $812,000. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 14.3% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 56,894 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,041,000 after purchasing an additional 7,117 shares during the period. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter worth approximately $328,000. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter worth $358,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Shift4 Payments Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of FOUR opened at $85.86 on Thursday. Shift4 Payments 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. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.12. The firm has a market cap of $7.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $405.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.