New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 2,850,260 Shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 94.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 157,519 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,850,260 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.17% of Shift4 Payments worth $16,347,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Shift4 Payments in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. purchased a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FOUR. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $142.00 to $135.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Shift4 Payments from $116.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Susquehanna raised their price target on Shift4 Payments from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. B. Riley lifted their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $106.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,462 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.07, for a total transaction of $147,764.34. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 37,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,748,585.23. This represents a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jordan Frankel sold 5,000 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.01, for a total transaction of $495,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 222,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,991,309.12. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,462 shares of company stock worth $1,211,364. 30.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of FOUR stock opened at $94.95 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $110.73 and its 200 day moving average is $98.15. The company has a quick ratio of 2.97, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. The firm has a market cap of $8.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.72. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.87 and a 52-week high of $127.50.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shift4 Payments 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.