PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Trading Up 0.1% After Analyst Upgrade

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) rose 0.1% during trading on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $60.00 to $65.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. PayPal traded as high as $67.44 and last traded at $66.20. Approximately 3,536,793 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 16,447,014 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.14.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on PYPL. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Mizuho lifted their price target on PayPal from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of PayPal from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of PayPal from $100.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Twenty-five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PayPal presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.73.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total value of $466,079.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,430 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,420,795.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in PayPal by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,069,337 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,173,254,000 after acquiring an additional 873,181 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in PayPal during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $749,561,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in PayPal by 0.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,767,054 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $687,902,000 after buying an additional 78,105 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in PayPal by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,976,859 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $428,449,000 after acquiring an additional 265,116 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of PayPal by 29.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,916,982 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $404,367,000 after acquiring an additional 1,575,930 shares during the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

PayPal Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $69.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $63.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.39.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $7.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.52 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 21.58%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a technology platform that enables digital payments on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. It operates a two-sided network at scale that connects merchants and consumers that enables its customers to connect, transact, and send and receive payments through online and in person, as well as transfer and withdraw funds using various funding sources, such as bank accounts, PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products comprising its installment products, credit and debit cards, and cryptocurrencies, as well as other stored value products, including gift cards and eligible rewards.