Short Interest in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) Drops By 8.1%

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) saw a significant decrease in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,070,000 shares, a decrease of 8.1% from the January 15th total of 7,690,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,800,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of FOUR stock traded up $1.67 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $121.06. 1,093,629 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,157,150. 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 12-month low of $55.87 and a 12-month high of $123.25. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $110.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $96.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.72.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider James J. Whalen sold 1,462 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.07, for a total value of $147,764.34. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,748,585.23. This trade represents a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jordan Frankel sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.01, for a total value of $495,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 222,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,991,309.12. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days. Corporate insiders own 30.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shift4 Payments

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FOUR. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 50.8% during the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 5,883,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,250,000 after buying an additional 1,980,940 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,539,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $678,668,000 after purchasing an additional 562,774 shares during the period. Cat Rock Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,222,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 2,510,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,489,000 after purchasing an additional 367,500 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 41.3% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,198,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,689,000 after purchasing an additional 350,703 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FOUR. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Shift4 Payments from $106.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Shift4 Payments from $118.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Shift4 Payments from $90.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $112.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $108.24.

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.