Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) Short Interest Up 24.7% in March

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) saw a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,230,000 shares, a growth of 24.7% from the February 28th total of 6,600,000 shares. Approximately 13.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,750,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.7 days.

Insider Transactions at Shift4 Payments

In related news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total transaction of $849,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,094,317.56. This trade represents a 5.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total value of $229,250.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 264,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,287,295.20. This trade represents a 0.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,695 shares of company stock worth $1,097,380. Corporate insiders own 30.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 55,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,718,000 after purchasing an additional 1,868 shares during the period. Alpha Wealth Funds LLC purchased a new position in Shift4 Payments in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $311,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the 4th quarter valued at $16,195,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Armis Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter worth $316,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FOUR shares. Benchmark downgraded shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Shift4 Payments from $109.00 to $107.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Raymond James upgraded Shift4 Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $140.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $125.00 to $95.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Shift4 Payments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.80.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of Shift4 Payments stock traded up $2.18 on Wednesday, reaching $85.86. 1,407,185 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,563,976. The company has a 50 day moving average of $102.03 and a 200 day moving average of $100.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 2.97. Shift4 Payments has a 52 week low of $55.87 and a 52 week high of $127.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.65 billion, a PE ratio of 27.97, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.06. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 6.89%. The firm had revenue of $405.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 earnings per share 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.