Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Upgraded at Wells Fargo & Company

Key Points

• Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Shift4 Payments to a "hold" rating, amidst varying target price adjustments from different research firms.
• Shift4 Payments reported $1.10 earnings per share for the last quarter, falling short of analysts' expectations of $1.20, though revenue increased by 28.9% year-over-year.
• CEO David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the company, while Chairman Jared Isaacman increased his stake by purchasing 104,705 shares, indicating mixed insider sentiment.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on FOUR. Truist Financial raised their price target on Shift4 Payments from $97.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Mizuho lowered their target price on Shift4 Payments from $107.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Shift4 Payments from $113.00 to $107.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Raymond James Financial lowered their target price on Shift4 Payments from $126.00 to $120.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $104.00 target price on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and six 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 target price of $110.05.

Shift4 Payments Trading Down 2.1%

FOUR stock opened at $75.32 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $83.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.78. Shift4 Payments has a fifty-two week low of $68.09 and a fifty-two week high of $127.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 2.53.

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

Insider Transactions at Shift4 Payments

In other news, CEO David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the firm's 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 285,588 shares in the company, valued at $25,300,240.92. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman Jared Isaacman purchased 104,705 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of $83.61 per share, for a total transaction of $8,754,385.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 939,715 shares in the company, valued at $78,569,571.15. The trade was a 12.54% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 25.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 12.6% in the 2nd quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 6,665,443 shares of the company's stock worth $660,612,000 after purchasing an additional 745,650 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 6,338,567 shares of the company's stock worth $628,215,000 after purchasing an additional 890,990 shares during the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 4,966,405 shares of the company's stock worth $492,220,000 after purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 2.6% during the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,636,924 shares of the company's stock worth $162,236,000 after acquiring an additional 41,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 16.6% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,505,933 shares of the company's stock worth $149,253,000 after acquiring an additional 214,627 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.