Clearbridge Investments LLC Sells 444,588 Shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

Clearbridge Investments LLC trimmed its position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 20.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,745,084 shares of the company’s stock after selling 444,588 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned approximately 1.94% of Shift4 Payments worth $181,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of FOUR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Shift4 Payments by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,539,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $678,668,000 after purchasing an additional 562,774 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of 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 worth $127,689,000 after buying an additional 350,703 shares in the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Shift4 Payments by 799.9% during the fourth quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 231,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,977,000 after buying an additional 205,361 shares during the period. Maestria Partners LLC purchased a new position in Shift4 Payments during the fourth quarter worth about $19,614,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 2,954.7% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shift4 Payments Stock Down 2.3 %

NYSE FOUR opened at $84.50 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $103.34 and its 200 day moving average is $100.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 2.97. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.87 and a 1 year high of $127.50.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last posted its earnings results 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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on FOUR. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $140.00 to $124.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Benchmark lowered shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $120.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Raymond James raised Shift4 Payments from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $140.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, President David Taylor Lauber sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.70, for a total value of $229,250.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 264,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,287,295.20. This represents a 0.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total value of $849,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,094,317.56. This represents a 5.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,695 shares of company stock worth $1,097,380. 30.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.