Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Buys New Holdings in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund bought a new stake in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 14,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,453,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FOUR. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 50.8% in the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 5,883,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,980,940 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 9.3% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,834,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,098,000 after acquiring an additional 242,179 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 799.9% in the fourth quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 231,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,977,000 after acquiring an additional 205,361 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 2,954.7% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 158,998 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,501,000 after acquiring an additional 153,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 41.9% in the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 492,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,666,000 after acquiring an additional 145,444 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $143.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $140.00 to $124.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $106.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America lowered Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $112.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Shift4 Payments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Shift4 Payments

In other Shift4 Payments news, insider David Taylor Lauber sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.71, for a total transaction of $568,550.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 210,045 shares in the company, valued at $23,884,216.95. This represents a 2.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,462 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.07, for a total value of $147,764.34. Following the sale, the insider now owns 37,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,748,585.23. The trade was a 3.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,462 shares of company stock worth $1,211,364 over the last quarter. 30.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Shift4 Payments Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE:FOUR opened at $98.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a current ratio of 1.38. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a one year low of $55.87 and a one year high of $127.50. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $110.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.67. The stock has a market cap of $8.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.72.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.06. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 6.89%. The firm had revenue of $405.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. As a group, 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.