Shift4 Payments (FOUR) is a 24-year-old industry leading, international integrated payment processor serving restaurants, hospitality, stadiums, travel, e-commerce, retail, gaming and even non-profits, explains Tom Bishop, editor of BI Research.
To a lesser extent, the company also provides other commerce technologies to help merchants operate their businesses, like online stores with shopping carts and even inventory management.
With the recent acquisition of Finaro, Shift4 has added Europe and potential for the rest of the world. It’s now processing nearly $150 billion in transactions annually for more than 200,000 customers in virtually every industry.
As an aside, its CEO, Jared Isaacman, was recently flying around up in outer space testing space suits. I kid you not! In fact, he was reported to have financed a good bit of that space mission. I mention this to point out that clearly the guy is a very successful over-achiever.
The company also recently announced the acquisition of Givex, a global provider of gift cards, loyalty programs and point-of-sale solutions with over 130,000 locations across more than 100 countries.
There have also been a number of interesting new sports venue wins lately. On August 14th, Shift4 was chosen to power all ticket sales andfood service payments at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.
And a nice sweetener there is that this is also the home of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, which now makes this a year-round venue. The Fever sold out nearly every game this past season with a little help from Caitlin Clark.
In addition, on August 19th, the company announced landing another major sporting venue — ticketing for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts — starting this current season. Shift4 also signed on with the NBA’s Miami Heat. So things continue to move along in this area.
I previously reported that Shift4 posted a beat and raise in the prior second quarter. Investors love that. Adjusted EPS rose 29% to $0.96, which beat the consensus of $0.86 by 12%. Revenue rose 30% to $827 million, though the company prefers the measure “Revenue less network fees” which rose 40%. Adjusted EBITDA, rocketed ahead 48% to $162 million.
For 2024 organic revenue growth alone is expected to be well north of 25% and, overall, analysts see total revenue growing 32% to $3.4 billion, leading to EPS growth of 34% to $3.79.
For Q3 the consensus is 38% growth in revenue and 32% growth in EPS to $1.08. With the shares still trading at just 24 times the 2024 consensus EPS (34% growth), the stock remains a Buy.
