Royal Bank of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Stock

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) had its target price upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $116.00 to $154.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on FOUR. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $118.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Benchmark downgraded shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.19.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

NYSE FOUR opened at $94.95 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $110.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.66. Shift4 Payments has a 52-week low of $55.87 and a 52-week high of $127.50. The company has a market cap of $8.55 billion, a PE ratio of 30.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.72.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.06. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 6.89% and a return on equity of 29.38%. The firm had revenue of $405.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.07, for a total transaction of $147,764.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 37,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,748,585.23. This trade represents a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jordan Frankel sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 222,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,991,309.12. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,462 shares of company stock valued at $1,211,364 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 30.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FOUR. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 50.8% during the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 5,883,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,250,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,940 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Shift4 Payments by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,539,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $678,668,000 after buying an additional 562,774 shares during the period. Cat Rock Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter valued at $39,222,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP grew its position in Shift4 Payments by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 2,510,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,489,000 after buying an additional 367,500 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its position in Shift4 Payments by 41.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,198,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,689,000 after buying an additional 350,703 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.