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

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR - Free Report) had its target price increased by Royal Bank of Canada from $116.00 to $154.00 in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $118.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Benchmark lowered Shift4 Payments from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Bank of America cut Shift4 Payments from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $112.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $114.19.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

Shares of Shift4 Payments stock traded down $3.94 on Wednesday, hitting $94.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,838,187 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,732,191. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a current ratio of 2.98. Shift4 Payments has a 1 year low of $55.87 and a 1 year high of $127.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $110.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $97.43. The company has a market capitalization of $8.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.72.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.06. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 29.38% and a net margin of 6.89%. The company had revenue of $405.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Shift4 Payments

In other news, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,462 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was 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 directly owns 37,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,748,585.23. This trade represents a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 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 value of $495,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 222,112 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,991,309.12. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,462 shares of company stock worth $1,211,364 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 30.57% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Shift4 Payments

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 81,057 shares of the company's stock valued at $8,412,000 after acquiring an additional 1,736 shares in the last quarter. Pacific Point Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at $726,000. JT Stratford LLC raised its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 18,477 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,918,000 after acquiring an additional 2,537 shares in the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Castleark Management LLC now owns 78,940 shares of the company's stock valued at $8,192,000 after acquiring an additional 10,440 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Elequin Capital LP raised its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 62.3% in the fourth quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 297 shares of the company's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Shift4 Payments

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.