Great Lakes Advisors LLC Reduces Position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. $FOUR

Great Lakes Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 49.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 37,153 shares of the company’s stock after selling 36,437 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Shift4 Payments were worth $2,876,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its stake in Shift4 Payments by 16.4% during the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 6,338,567 shares of the company’s stock valued at $628,215,000 after purchasing an additional 890,990 shares during the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Shift4 Payments by 12.6% in the second quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 6,665,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $660,612,000 after buying an additional 745,650 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Shift4 Payments by 25.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,056,056 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,139,000 after buying an additional 419,132 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 71.3% in the 3rd quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 584,231 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,219,000 after buying an additional 243,161 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in Shift4 Payments by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,505,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,253,000 after buying an additional 214,627 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on FOUR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $95.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Shift4 Payments from $84.00 to $72.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Shift4 Payments from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $65.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Shift4 Payments from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.25.

Insider Transactions at Shift4 Payments

In other news, Director Nancy Disman sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $347,500.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 130,420 shares in the company, valued at $9,064,190. This trade represents a 3.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,438 shares of Shift4 Payments stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.50, for a total transaction of $102,817.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 54,736 shares in the company, valued at $3,913,624. This represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 18,438 shares of company stock valued at $1,278,317 in the last three months. 25.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

NYSE:FOUR opened at $58.89 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 52 week low of $58.44 and a 52 week high of $127.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $65.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a PE ratio of 27.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.66.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by ($0.03). Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 5.02%.The business had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.04 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 61.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.