Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) Rating Lowered to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on FOUR. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Shift4 Payments from $74.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Raymond James Financial set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Shift4 Payments from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $55.00 to $59.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $46.00 target price on Shift4 Payments in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.24.

Shift4 Payments Trading Down 2.8%

FOUR stock opened at $41.11 on Tuesday. Shift4 Payments has a one year low of $34.56 and a one year high of $88.51. The stock has a market cap of $3.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $47.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $45.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.59, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $615.65 million. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 2.20% and a return on equity of 28.40%. The company’s revenue was up 50.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.10 earnings per share. Shift4 Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.150-5.350 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Shift4 Payments will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Shift4 Payments

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new stake in Shift4 Payments in the 2nd quarter valued at about $215,000. Nykredit A S acquired a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $132,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 3,922.5% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,823,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,330,000 after purchasing an additional 2,753,215 shares during the period. Readystate Asset Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 530.2% during the second quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 86,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,187,000 after purchasing an additional 72,422 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaGrep UK Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the second quarter valued at approximately $548,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Shift4 Payments Company Profile

Shift4 Payments is a U.S.-based provider of integrated payment processing and technology solutions, serving merchants across the hospitality, retail, e-commerce, gaming and lodging industries. The company’s platform enables businesses to accept in-store, online and mobile payments through a combination of point-of-sale hardware, payment gateway services and back-office software. By centralizing transaction processing and reporting, Shift4 aims to simplify payments, enhance security and streamline operations for its merchant customers.

The company’s core offerings include encrypted point-of-sale terminals, cloud-based payment gateways, and developer-friendly APIs for online and mobile checkouts.