Great Lakes Advisors LLC Takes $2.91 Million Position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 67,443 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,912,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal in the second quarter valued at about $3,236,989,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $949,758,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 67.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,614,720 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,158,554,000 after acquiring an additional 10,356,256 shares during the period. Amundi increased its position in PayPal by 227.6% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 13,804,208 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $624,364,000 after purchasing an additional 9,590,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of PayPal during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $251,215,000. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PayPal Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PYPL opened at $62.30 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $51.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.46 and a 1-year high of $79.21. The company has a market cap of $53.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.30.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.10. PayPal had a return on equity of 24.39% and a net margin of 14.36%.The firm had revenue of $8.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.40 earnings per share. PayPal’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. PayPal’s payout ratio is currently 10.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on PayPal from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of PayPal from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of PayPal from $48.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of PayPal from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of PayPal from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.28.

PayPal News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Takeover speculation supported the stock. Deal chatter involving a possible Stripe and Advent International offer resurfaced, encouraging investors to view PayPal as a potential acquisition target. No offer or transaction has been confirmed, so the catalyst remains speculative. PayPal takeover speculation
• Positive Sentiment: Tuition-payment integrations expand PayPal’s potential transaction volume. PayPal and Venmo are now available through Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce and TouchNet, with participating schools including Bellarmine University, Butler University, Kansas State University, Michigan State University and Texas Tech. The initiative adds a recurring, high-value payment use case, though its near-term revenue contribution is unclear. PayPal and Venmo tuition-payment expansion
• Positive Sentiment: PayPal outperformed some buy-now-pay-later peers. Klarna and Affirm declined as PayPal remained positive, suggesting investors may be favoring the scale, established customer base and broader financial-services platform of more mature payment companies. PayPal and BNPL stock rotation
• Neutral Sentiment: Options pricing reflects substantial uncertainty. The options market implies a broad potential trading range over the coming year, consistent with uncertainty surrounding PayPal’s turnaround prospects and possible corporate activity. PayPal options outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale was a modest cautionary signal. Suzan Kereere sold 4,162 shares worth approximately $253,716 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. She retained 30,983 shares, reducing the significance of the transaction as an indicator of business prospects. PayPal insider sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive and valuation risks remain. TikTok is reportedly developing a peer-to-peer payment feature that could challenge Venmo’s social-payments positioning. Jim Cramer also warned that some fintech stocks, including PayPal, may be priced for optimistic outcomes. TikTok peer-to-peer payment report

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In other PayPal news, insider Suzan Kereere sold 4,162 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.96, for a total transaction of $253,715.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,888,723.68. This represents a 11.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Frank Keller sold 732 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.10, for a total value of $42,529.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 41,567 shares in the company, valued at $2,415,042.70. This trade represents a 1.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 14,774 shares of company stock worth $738,249. 0.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

PayPal Profile

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a global digital payments platform that enables consumers and merchants to send and receive payments online, on mobile devices and at the point of sale. The company provides a broad set of payment solutions, including a digital wallet, merchant payment processing, checkout services, invoicing and fraud-management tools. PayPal’s platform is designed to support e-commerce, in-person retail and person-to-person transfers, targeting both individual consumers and businesses of varying sizes.

Key products and services in PayPal’s portfolio include the PayPal wallet and checkout ecosystem, the Venmo peer-to-peer mobile app, Braintree’s developer-focused payment gateway, Xoom for international money transfers, and PayPal Credit and buy-now-pay-later options.