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

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of 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 company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,750,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on FOUR shares. Bank of America lowered Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $112.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $143.00 price objective (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of 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. Benchmark lowered shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased 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 given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock 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 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $85.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,407,185 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,563,976. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $102.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.22. Shift4 Payments has a 52 week low of $55.87 and a 52 week high of $127.50. The firm has a market cap of $7.65 billion, a PE ratio of 27.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.06. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 6.89% and a return on equity of 29.00%. The business had revenue of $405.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Shift4 Payments

In other news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total value of $849,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares in the company, valued at $15,094,317.56. This trade represents a 5.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 0.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,695 shares of company stock valued at $1,097,380 in the last 90 days. 30.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FOUR. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 427,696 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,894,000 after acquiring an additional 50,664 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 63.5% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 14,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,295,000 after purchasing an additional 5,674 shares during the period. Centiva Capital LP increased its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 104.3% in the 3rd quarter. Centiva Capital LP now owns 8,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $753,000 after buying an additional 4,342 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in Shift4 Payments in the 3rd quarter valued at about $448,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 204.9% in the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 26,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,326,000 after buying an additional 17,642 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% 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.