Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $140.00 target price on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on FOUR. Barclays lowered 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $135.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $142.00 to $135.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, B. Riley upped their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.30.

Shift4 Payments Trading Up 1.7 %

FOUR opened at $90.36 on Monday. Shift4 Payments has a 12 month low of $55.87 and a 12 month high of $127.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.43, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $108.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.45.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Shift4 Payments

In other Shift4 Payments news, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total transaction of $229,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 264,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,287,295.20. This represents a 0.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 30.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Shift4 Payments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Alpha Wealth Funds LLC purchased a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $311,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $16,195,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Armis Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $316,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 81,057 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,412,000 after buying an additional 1,736 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.