Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Earns Outperform Rating from Analysts at William Blair

William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on FOUR. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $75.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Stephens reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Wedbush began coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Friday, May 24th. They issued a neutral rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Shift4 Payments presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $85.44.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

Shares of FOUR stock opened at $75.72 on Wednesday. Shift4 Payments has a 1-year low of $42.91 and a 1-year high of $92.30. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $73.36 and its 200 day moving average is $70.68. The company has a market cap of $6.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.82, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.09. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 24.19% and a net margin of 3.64%. The company had revenue of $320.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $314.10 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 40.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Shift4 Payments will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 34.3% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,451,361 shares of the company’s stock valued at $228,031,000 after acquiring an additional 881,216 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 11.3% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,314,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,800,000 after buying an additional 235,355 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 11,776.9% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,730,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,947,000 after buying an additional 1,716,132 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 21.7% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,434,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,803,000 after buying an additional 255,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 72.8% in the first quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,333,252 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,088,000 after buying an additional 561,707 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.