Shift4 Payments Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:FOUR)

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 9,256 put options on the company. This is an increase of 212% compared to the average daily volume of 2,970 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FOUR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Shift4 Payments to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Shift4 Payments from $113.00 to $107.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Shift4 Payments has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $107.85.

Insider Buying and Selling at Shift4 Payments

In other Shift4 Payments news, insider James J. Whalen sold 794 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.89, for a total transaction of $71,372.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 56,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,062,964.36. This represents a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total transaction of $221,475.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 285,588 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,300,240.92. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 25.15% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Durable Capital Partners LP increased its holdings 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 worth $660,612,000 after buying an additional 745,650 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 16.4% in the second quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 6,338,567 shares of the company’s stock worth $628,215,000 after buying an additional 890,990 shares during the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 4.2% in the second quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 4,966,405 shares of the company’s stock worth $492,220,000 after buying an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 25.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,056,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $159,139,000 after buying an additional 419,132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 16.6% in the second 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.

Shift4 Payments Trading Down 2.3%

NYSE:FOUR opened at $66.80 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $80.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $88.65. Shift4 Payments has a 52 week low of $66.11 and a 52 week high of $127.50. The company has a market capitalization of $5.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a current ratio of 2.53.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.10). Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 37.05% and a net margin of 6.11%.The firm had revenue of $413.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $967.84 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.96 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.