— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
Shift4 founder and Chief Executive Jared Isaacman got a full-page profile in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, discussing his business career, ties with Elon Musk, and his exploits as a pilot and astronaut.
Here’s a link to the story.
Isaacman has been nominated to run NASA. Until then, he’ll run Shift4, and once he’s out, he will keep his stake in the company. President Taylor Lauber will be his successor.
Shift4 processes payments for hotels, restaurants, casinos, resorts, major league teams and other businesses. Just about anybody in America who uses credit cards has had a payment handled by Shift4, and the company is expanding globally.
Shares in the company (NYSE:FOUR) were trading at $95.57 at 12:02 p.m. They’ve fallen since last week’s earnings report.
The numbers weren’t bad, but the stock has made a big run. It hit a 52-week high of $127.50 before posting results, so it has fallen more than 20% since.
In addition to earnings, Shift4 said it would acquire Global Blue, a company that handles refunds for duty-free shopping, for $2.5 billion.
Perhaps some investors saw that news and considered that Shift4 is not looking to be acquired. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, the stock has given back a lot of its recent surge, although Wall Street analysts still like the company.
As of noon Monday, Shift4 had a market capitalization of $8.5 billion, down from more than $10 billion last week. Competitor Toast Inc. (NYSE:TOST) has a market capitalization of $21.1 billion, more than twice Shift4’s.
Shift4 is based in Upper Saucon Township.
— Disclosure: I own shares in Shift4.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 