Analyzing Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) and Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR)

Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) and Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Fidelity National Information Services and Shift4 Payments, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fidelity National Information Services	1	9	12	0	2.50
Shift4 Payments	0	3	18	0	2.86

Fidelity National Information Services currently has a consensus target price of $91.50, suggesting a potential upside of 6.30%. Shift4 Payments has a consensus target price of $100.15, suggesting a potential downside of 8.77%. Given Fidelity National Information Services’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Fidelity National Information Services is more favorable than Shift4 Payments.

Profitability

This table compares Fidelity National Information Services and Shift4 Payments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fidelity National Information Services	14.37%	15.35%	6.79%
Shift4 Payments	4.04%	23.86%	5.87%

Volatility & Risk

Fidelity National Information Services has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shift4 Payments has a beta of 1.64, indicating that its share price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Fidelity National Information Services and Shift4 Payments”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fidelity National Information Services	$9.82 billion	4.72	-$6.65 billion	$2.51	34.29
Shift4 Payments	$2.56 billion	3.86	$86.20 million	$1.84	59.66

Shift4 Payments has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Fidelity National Information Services. Fidelity National Information Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shift4 Payments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.2% of Fidelity National Information Services shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.9% of Shift4 Payments shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Fidelity National Information Services shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 30.6% of Shift4 Payments shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Shift4 Payments beats Fidelity National Information Services on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fidelity National Information Services

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. engages in the provision of financial services technology solutions for financial institutions, businesses, and developers worldwide. It operates through Banking Solutions, Capital Market Solutions, and Corporate and Other segments. The company provides core processing and ancillary applications; mobile and online banking; fraud, risk management, and compliance; card and retail payment; electronic funds transfer and network; wealth and retirement; and item processing and output solutions. It also offers trading and asset, lending, leveraged and syndicated loan markets, and treasury and risk solutions. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

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. The company also offers suite of technology solutions, such as Lighthouse, a cloud-based business intelligence tool that includes customer engagement, social media management, online reputation management, scheduling, and product pricing, as well as reporting and analytics; integrated POS for merchants business; and Skytab, a mobile payment solution. In addition, it provides marketplace technology that enable seamless integrations into third-party applications, which includes online delivery services, payroll, timekeeping, and other human resource services. Further, the company offers merchant management, training and education, marketing management, and incentives tracking solutions. Additionally, it provides merchant underwriting, onboarding and activation, training, risk management, and support services; and software integrations and compliance management, and partner support and services. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.