Baird Financial Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in Shift4 Payments, Inc. $FOUR

Baird Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 552,430 shares of the company’s stock after selling 28,384 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Shift4 Payments were worth $54,751,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FOUR. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Shift4 Payments by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 5,919,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $483,706,000 after acquiring an additional 788,952 shares in the last quarter. Kodai Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the 1st quarter worth approximately $14,279,000. Senator Investment Group LP lifted its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments by 32.4% in the 1st quarter. Senator Investment Group LP now owns 678,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,427,000 after purchasing an additional 165,973 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its position in shares of Shift4 Payments by 17.1% during the second quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 1,090,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,087,000 after purchasing an additional 159,301 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Shift4 Payments during the first quarter valued at approximately $12,312,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on FOUR shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $114.00 to $104.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Shift4 Payments from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $92.00 to $86.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Shift4 Payments currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.84.

Insider Activity at Shift4 Payments

In related news, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,438 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 54,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,913,624. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 25.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Shift4 Payments Price Performance

FOUR opened at $69.33 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.14 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.68. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $72.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $86.35. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.23 and a 1 year high of $127.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.50 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.19 billion. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 5.02% and a return on equity of 40.19%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 61.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.04 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shift4 Payments 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.