Global Endowment Management LP Purchases New Position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. $FOUR

Key Points

• Global Endowment Management LP acquired a new position of $476,000 in Shift4 Payments during the 1st quarter, purchasing 5,830 shares.
• Insider trading revealed that director Sarah Goldsmith-Grover and CFO Nancy Disman sold 1,000 and 10,000 shares, respectively, leading to decreases in their holdings.
• Shift4 Payments' stock has recently faced analyst downgrades, including a shift from "buy" to "hold" by Wall Street Zen, while maintaining a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."

Global Endowment Management LP purchased a new stake in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,830 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $476,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Shift4 Payments in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. SRH Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Elequin Capital LP boosted 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 acquiring an additional 114 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FOUR traded down $1.98 during trading on Thursday, hitting $88.52. 447,666 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,842,554. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 1-year low of $68.09 and a 1-year high of $127.50. The company has a market capitalization of $7.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.81. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $97.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a current ratio of 2.53.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FOUR shares. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $125.00 to $115.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $92.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Shift4 Payments from $154.00 to $127.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Shift4 Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $114.40.

Insider Activity at Shift4 Payments

In other news, insider James J. Whalen sold 794 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.89, for a total transaction of $71,372.66. Following the sale, the insider 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Goldsmith-Grover sold 1,000 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 7,474 shares in the company, valued at $706,517.22. The trade was a 11.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,551 shares of company stock worth $1,329,822 in the last three months. Company insiders own 25.15% of the company's stock.

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.