Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Stock Price

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) had its price objective lowered by Morgan Stanley from $109.00 to $107.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 11.04% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Susquehanna increased their price target on Shift4 Payments from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Bank of America downgraded Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $112.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $143.00 target price (up from $120.00) on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $113.86.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

NYSE FOUR opened at $96.36 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.97, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. Shift4 Payments has a twelve month low of $55.87 and a twelve month high of $127.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $110.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.50. The firm has a market cap of $8.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.72.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced 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 29.00%. The business had revenue of $405.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Shift4 Payments

In other Shift4 Payments news, insider David Taylor Lauber sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.71, for a total transaction of $568,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 210,045 shares in the company, valued at $23,884,216.95. This represents a 2.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,462 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.07, for a total value of $147,764.34. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,748,585.23. This trade represents a 3.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,462 shares of company stock worth $1,211,364 over the last three months. 30.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 41.9% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 492,849 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,666,000 after acquiring an additional 145,444 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Shift4 Payments by 26.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 37,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,330,000 after purchasing an additional 7,905 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Shift4 Payments by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,834,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,098,000 after purchasing an additional 242,179 shares during the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division increased its stake in Shift4 Payments by 86.5% during the 4th quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 15,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,645,000 after purchasing an additional 7,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue purchased a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter worth $812,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.