Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Shares Gap Up After Insider Buying Activity

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday following insider buying activity. The stock had previously closed at $64.06, but opened at $65.65. Shift4 Payments shares last traded at $65.80, with a volume of 169,950 shares traded.

Specifically, CEO Jared Isaacman acquired 39,135 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $64.04 per share, with a total value of $2,506,205.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 621,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,830,446.48. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.34, for a total value of $723,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 274,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,890,172.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jared Isaacman bought 39,135 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $64.04 per share, for a total transaction of $2,506,205.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 621,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,830,446.48. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 30.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FOUR. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $93.00 price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $70.00 to $66.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $94.00 target price on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price target on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Friday, May 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.33.

Shift4 Payments Trading Up 3.5 %

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.52. The company has a market capitalization of $5.81 billion, a PE ratio of 43.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 1.70.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.05). Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 25.21% and a net margin of 3.38%. The firm had revenue of $269.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $278.85 million. Analysts anticipate that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FOUR. Voss Capital LLC acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter worth $11,151,000. FCF Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,136,000. Peregrine Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $6,040,000. Donoghue Forlines LLC purchased a new position in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $1,506,000. Finally, Regal Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments in the 3rd quarter valued at about $976,000. 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.