Jennison Associates LLC Sells 739,885 Shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR)

Jennison Associates LLC trimmed its position in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 31.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,595,376 shares of the company’s stock after selling 739,885 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Shift4 Payments were worth $130,358,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FOUR. Perpetual Ltd bought a new position in Shift4 Payments in the first quarter valued at approximately $56,863,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 562,774 shares during the last quarter. Cat Rock Capital Management LP bought a new position in Shift4 Payments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,222,000. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 367,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 350,703 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 target price on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $124.00 target price on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $116.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Sarah Goldsmith-Grover sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.53, for a total value of $94,530.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $706,517.22. This represents a 11.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Karen Roter Davis sold 2,757 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.53, for a total transaction of $260,619.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,592 shares in the company, valued at $623,141.76. The trade was a 29.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,757 shares of company stock valued at $1,258,449. Company insiders own 25.15% of the company’s stock.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of FOUR stock opened at $106.53 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.13 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $95.13 and its 200 day moving average is $95.74. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.45 and a 12 month high of $127.50.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $368.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $886.09 million. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 6.50% and a return on equity of 32.97%. Shift4 Payments’s revenue was up 39.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

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.