Shift4 Payments (FOUR) Competitors

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) and Maximus (NYSE:MMS) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FOUR or MMS?

Maximus received 372 more outperform votes than Shift4 Payments when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.78% of users gave Maximus an outperform vote while only 55.81% of users gave Shift4 Payments an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Shift4 Payments	Outperform Votes 72 55.81%	Underperform Votes 57 44.19%
Maximus	Outperform Votes 444 65.78%	Underperform Votes 231 34.22%

Do analysts prefer FOUR or MMS?

Shift4 Payments currently has a consensus price target of $83.75, indicating a potential upside of 23.85%. Maximus has a consensus price target of $102.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.74%. Given Shift4 Payments' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Shift4 Payments is more favorable than Maximus.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shift4 Payments	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	18 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.90
Maximus	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has more risk and volatility, FOUR or MMS?

Shift4 Payments has a beta of 1.59, suggesting that its stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Maximus has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better earnings and valuation, FOUR or MMS?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shift4 Payments	$2.56B	2.31	$86.20M	$1.49	45.38
Maximus	$4.90B	1.07	$161.79M	$3.81	22.74

Is FOUR or MMS more profitable?

Maximus has a net margin of 4.58% compared to Shift4 Payments' net margin of 3.38%. Shift4 Payments' return on equity of 25.21% beat Maximus' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shift4 Payments	3.38%	25.21%	5.83%
Maximus	4.58%	18.02%	7.67%

Does the media prefer FOUR or MMS?

In the previous week, Shift4 Payments had 25 more articles in the media than Maximus. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Shift4 Payments and 3 mentions for Maximus. Maximus' average media sentiment score of 1.19 beat Shift4 Payments' score of 0.56 indicating that Maximus is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Shift4 Payments	9 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Maximus	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of FOUR or MMS?

98.9% of Shift4 Payments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.2% of Maximus shares are owned by institutional investors. 32.1% of Shift4 Payments shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Maximus shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Shift4 Payments beats Maximus on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.