Shift4’s Isaacman sees growth in international markets, is `frustrated’ by share price |

Shift4 Payments Inc. is poised for growth internationally, founder Jared Isaacman said Wednesday.

While he looks forward to a bright future for the Lehigh Valley-based company, the chief executive officer also noted, “We’re incredibly frustrated that the stock is very much under-appreciated.”

Shares of the payment-processing company closed Wednesday at $45.52 on the New York Stock Exchange. In the past 52 weeks, they have traded as high as $66.86 and as low as $29.39. In April 2021, shares edged over the $100 mark, but have fallen by more than half since then.

Isaacman made his comments Wednesday at the UBS Global TMT Conference in New York on Wednesday. The TMT in the title of the investment bank’s conference stands for tech, media and telecom.

Chief Financial Officer Nancy Disman and Taylor Lauber, president and chief strategy officer, joined Isaacman at the conference.

Isaacman started the company in the basement of his family’s home in New Jersey in 1999, when he was 16. Shift4 went public under the ticker symbol FOUR in June 2020.

The company has grown steadily, handling billions of payments for restaurants, hotels, not-for-profit groups, stadiums and gambling businesses. Its client roster includes Denny’s, the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Burger King and the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League.

With fears of a recession, high inflation and a war in Europe, the company faces uncertainty, but Isaacman said Shift4 has been there already. The company made it through the dot-com stock bubble that burst in 2000 and the “Great Recession” of 2008-09.

Then as Shift4 was preparing to sell stock to the public in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

“You’re literally getting ready to start your roadshow (a series of presentations to investors) in mid-March of 2020 and you have to tell all your employees to go home,” he said.

Payment volume dropped, he said, and he found himself looking at a completely empty office. The company is based now in Hanover Township (Lehigh County) but is moving to Center Valley in Upper Saucon Township next year. Shift4 has about 2,000 employees, with 600 in the Lehigh Valley.

Isaacman discussed the pandemic as an example of how Shift4’s staff pulled together in tough times.

“We ended the year (2020) with double-digit revenue growth, double-digit volume growth, with most employees working at home,” he said. The company was still able to go public that year.

“We never stopped adding customers during the pandemic,” Lauber said. “Hotels aren’t looking to change their payment provider in the middle of a pandemic.”

Now, Shift4 is adding customers abroad. Isaacman said the company is generating transaction volume in Europe and prepared to add new markets. The company will expand but has consistently emphasized that growth must be profitable.

CFO Disman said the company has the financial flexibility to support growth, and it may look at acquiring companies that can help it expand.

“I think we’ve got an active MNA (mergers and acquisitions) pipeline especially as valuations are coming down in the market,” she said.

Disman added, “This company is just poised for tons of success” and “everybody is pulling in the same direction.”

As the executive team addressed the conference, Isaacman’s wealth crept up. He was worth about $1.5 billion Wednesday, according to Forbes’ real-time net worth calculator, with a $22 million gain on the day.

He said success comes down to fundamentals: hard work and luck.

“You just don’t sit still with what you have today,” he said, a bit of advice that may carry weight coming from a man who that day had $1.5 billion. He and the company are always looking for new opportunities.

“Work really hard,” he said. “That should be the primary focus, that’s what it is with Shift4 every day.”