Critical Review: Paysign (NASDAQ:PAYS) vs. Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR)

Paysign (NASDAQ:PAYS) and Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Paysign and Shift4 Payments”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Paysign	$91.47 million	5.43	$7.55 million	$0.17	52.29
Shift4 Payments	$4.45 billion	0.89	$119.00 million	$0.84	59.50

Shift4 Payments has higher revenue and earnings than Paysign. Paysign is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shift4 Payments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Paysign has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shift4 Payments has a beta of 1.41, indicating that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

25.9% of Paysign shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.9% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by institutional investors. 24.5% of Paysign shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Paysign and Shift4 Payments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Paysign	11.38%	21.74%	4.19%
Shift4 Payments	2.63%	33.55%	5.01%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Paysign and Shift4 Payments, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Paysign	0	1	2	0	2.67
Shift4 Payments	1	12	10	0	2.39

Paysign presently has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.49%. Shift4 Payments has a consensus price target of $68.43, indicating a potential upside of 36.91%. Given Shift4 Payments’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Shift4 Payments is more favorable than Paysign.

Summary

Shift4 Payments beats Paysign on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Paysign

Paysign, Inc. provides prepaid card programs, comprehensive patient affordability offerings, digital banking services, and integrated payment processing services for businesses, consumers, and government institutions. Its product offerings include solutions for corporate rewards, prepaid gift cards, general purpose reloadable debit cards, employee incentives, consumer rebates, donor compensation, clinical trials, healthcare reimbursement payments and pharmaceutical payment assistance, and demand deposit accounts accessible with a debit card. The company markets its prepaid card solutions under the Paysign brand. Its primary market focus is on companies and municipalities that require a streamlined payment solution for rewards, rebates, payment assistance, and other payments to their customers, employees, agents, and others. The company was formerly known as 3PEA International, Inc. and changed its name to Paysign, Inc. in April 2019. Paysign, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada.

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. The company also offers suite of technology solutions, such as Lighthouse, a cloud-based business intelligence tool that includes customer engagement, social media management, online reputation management, scheduling, and product pricing, as well as reporting and analytics; integrated POS for merchants business; and Skytab, a mobile payment solution. In addition, it provides marketplace technology that enable seamless integrations into third-party applications, which includes online delivery services, payroll, timekeeping, and other human resource services. Further, the company offers merchant management, training and education, marketing management, and incentives tracking solutions. Additionally, it provides merchant underwriting, onboarding and activation, training, risk management, and support services; and software integrations and compliance management, and partner support and services. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.