CenterBook Partners LP Increases Stock Position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

Key Points

• CenterBook Partners LP significantly increased its stake in Shift4 Payments, boosting its ownership by 350.5% to approximately $9.20 million and now holds about 0.13% of the company's shares.
• Insiders at Shift4 Payments have sold a total of 13,757 shares valued at over $1.25 million in the last three months, indicating a 5.63% decrease in ownership for the CFO following their recent sale.
• Shift4 Payments has received a range of analyst ratings, with a consensus of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $114.40 from Wall Street research reports.

CenterBook Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR - Free Report) by 350.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 112,620 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 87,619 shares during the period. CenterBook Partners LP owned approximately 0.13% of Shift4 Payments worth $9,202,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FOUR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. SRH Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Elequin Capital LP increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 62.3% during the 4th quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 297 shares of the company's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 425 shares of the company's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.33, for a total transaction of $903,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 167,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,141,295.26. This represents a 5.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $94,530.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,474 shares in the company, valued at approximately $706,517.22. This represents a 11.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,757 shares of company stock valued at $1,258,449 over the last ninety days. 25.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FOUR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $92.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $154.00 to $127.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $97.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Shift4 Payments to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $104.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $114.40.

Shift4 Payments Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of FOUR traded down $1.64 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $81.68. 2,382,975 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,001,087. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.09 and a fifty-two week high of $127.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The business has a 50-day moving average of $98.15 and a 200-day moving average of $94.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.81.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $413.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $967.84 million. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 37.05% and a net margin of 6.11%. The firm's revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.96 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

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.