On Tuesday, Shift4 Payments earned an upgrade to its Relative Strength (RS) Rating, from 63 to 71. The upgrade comes after the company reported outstanding earnings in February but saw its stock plunge more than 30 points over two days.
Payments processing specialist Shift4 Payments on Feb. 18 reported a 78% surge in earnings, easily topping analyst consensus, on 26% growth in revenue. However, Investors chose to focus on the fact that CEO Jared Isaacman, a civilian astronaut, was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead NASA. Isaacman must still be confirmed by the Senate.
Additionally, the company at the same time announced plans to buy Global Blue, a specialty payments and technology platform focused on retail luxury brands, for $2.5 billion cash.
Shift4 Profit Growth Ranged Up To 78% Recently
Shift4 has a strong track record of profit and sales growth. Over the last three quarters its EPS growth ranged from 27% to 78% and revenue growth tracked from 26% to 35%.
When To Sell Stocks To Lock In Profits And Minimize Losses
Among its other ratings watchlist candidate Shift4 has a best-possible 99 Earnings Per Share Rating and a strong 89 Composite Rating, putting it in the top 11% of all stocks. The Composite score combines five separate proprietary ratings into one. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Additionally, Center Valley, Pa.-based Shift4 has a best-possible A SMR Rating (sales + profit margin + return on equity) on an A-to-E scale. Please note that it has a D+ Accumulation/Distribution Rating, indicating that funds are selling more of its shares than buying.
FOUR Stock Hit A Record High Last Month
Shift4 Payments hit an all-time high at 127.50 on Feb. 18 but has tumbled since then amid the market correction. Now is not an ideal time to jump in since it isn't near a proper buy zone, but see if the stock manages to offer and clear a proper buy point. Tuesday afternoon, Shift4 traded around 86.
Shift4 holds the No. 7 rank among its peers in the 36-stock Finance-Card/Payment Processing industry group. Paymentus Holdings, Visa and Mastercard are among the top 5 highly rated stocks in the group.
IBD's unique Relative Strength Rating measures market leadership by showing how a stock's price action over the last 52 weeks compares to that of the other stocks in our database. Market research shows that the market's biggest winners typically have an RS Rating north of 80 in the early stages of their moves. See if Shift4 Payments can continue to rebound and hit that benchmark.
This article was created automatically with Stats Perform's Wordsmith software using data and article templates supplied by Investor's Business Daily. An IBD journalist may have edited the article.
Please follow James DeTar on Twitter @JimDeTar
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