Baird Financial Group Inc. Buys 228,079 Shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. $FOUR

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 64.7%, acquiring an additional 228,079 shares to own a total of 580,814 shares valued at approximately $47.5 million.
• Shift4 Payments reported earnings of $1.10 per share, missing estimates of $1.20, while revenue for the quarter was $413.4 million, significantly below expectations of $967.84 million.
• Institutional investors now own 98.87% of Shift4 Payments' stock, with notable increases in holdings from various investors, including a 32.4% increase from Senator Investment Group LP and a 17.2% increase from Darlington Partners.

Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR - Free Report) by 64.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 580,814 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 228,079 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.66% of Shift4 Payments worth $47,458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Corsair Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 18.0% during the first quarter. Corsair Capital Management L.P. now owns 6,559 shares of the company's stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 2,590 shares of the company's stock worth $212,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Kodai Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Shift4 Payments in the first quarter worth about $14,279,000. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Shift4 Payments in the first quarter worth $240,000. Finally, Orion Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 2.6% during the first quarter. Orion Capital Management LLC now owns 7,945 shares of the company's stock valued at $649,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on FOUR. DA Davidson reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $124.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Thursday, June 5th. B. Riley reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. BTIG Research reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $104.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Shift4 Payments in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $120.00 target price on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $115.21.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

FOUR traded down $0.07 during trading on Friday, hitting $87.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 578,666 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,805,633. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.72. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 12 month low of $68.09 and a 12 month high of $127.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.53, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $96.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $91.06.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $413.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $967.84 million. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 6.11% and a return on equity of 37.05%. The firm's revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.96 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Shift4 Payments

In related news, Director Sarah Goldsmith-Grover sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.53, for a total value of $94,530.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,474 shares in the company, valued at $706,517.22. This trade represents a 11.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider James J. Whalen sold 794 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.89, for a total value of $71,372.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 56,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,062,964.36. This trade represents a 1.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,551 shares of company stock worth $1,329,822. Corporate insiders own 25.15% of the company's stock.

Shift4 Payments 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.