Magnetar Financial LLC Makes New $240,000 Investment in Shift4 Payments, Inc. $FOUR

Key Points

• Magnetar Financial LLC has made a new investment of approximately $240,000 in Shift4 Payments, acquiring 2,932 shares during the first quarter.
• Institutional investors own 98.87% of Shift4 Payments' stock, with significant increases in holdings from firms like SG Americas Securities LLC and Asset Management One Co. Ltd.
• Shift4 Payments reported earnings per share of $1.10 for the last quarter, falling short of analysts' expectations of $1.20, with revenue growth of 28.9% year-over-year.

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 2,932 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FOUR. Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments during the first quarter valued at approximately $56,863,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 2,510,014 shares of the company's stock valued at $260,489,000 after purchasing an additional 367,500 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 84.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 520,990 shares of the company's stock valued at $54,068,000 after purchasing an additional 238,478 shares during the last quarter. Spyglass Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 22.7% in the fourth quarter. Spyglass Capital Management LLC now owns 981,859 shares of the company's stock valued at $101,897,000 after purchasing an additional 181,539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Senator Investment Group LP increased its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 32.4% in the first quarter. Senator Investment Group LP now owns 678,334 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,427,000 after purchasing an additional 165,973 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Shift4 Payments in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $92.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. DA Davidson reissued a "buy" rating and set a $124.00 target price on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen cut Shift4 Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, BTIG Research reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Shift4 Payments currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $115.21.

Shift4 Payments Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE:FOUR traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $87.58. The company had a trading volume of 1,403,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,565,793. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.44, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.72. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $96.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $90.70. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 12-month low of $68.09 and a 12-month high of $127.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR - Get Free Report) last released 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 company had revenue of $413.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $967.84 million. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 6.11% and a return on equity of 37.05%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.96 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Shift4 Payments

In related news, CEO David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $221,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 285,588 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,300,240.92. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sarah Goldsmith-Grover sold 1,000 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.53, for a total value of $94,530.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,474 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $706,517.22. This trade represents a 11.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,051 shares of company stock valued at $1,551,297 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 25.15% of the company's stock.

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.