Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 210,952 PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 210,952 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,362,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in PayPal during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,236,989,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 67.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,614,720 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,158,554,000 after purchasing an additional 10,356,256 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $949,758,000. Amundi boosted its position in shares of PayPal by 227.6% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 13,804,208 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $624,364,000 after buying an additional 9,590,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,215,792 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $713,158,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,843 shares in the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key PayPal News

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Some market observers argue that PayPal’s board protected potentially greater long-term shareholder value by rejecting the reported $60.50-per-share offer, which valued the company at approximately $53 billion. Options pricing also continues to indicate a bullish bias among some traders. PayPal Drops 12% Overnight on Dead Stripe Deal
• Positive Sentiment: PayPal remains an independent turnaround story, with recent initiatives expanding PayPal and Venmo tuition-payment integrations through campus platforms. Investors will now focus more closely on whether management can improve growth and execution without takeover support. PayPal Tuition Payment Push
• Neutral Sentiment: The failed transaction removes a major change-of-control catalyst and returns attention to PayPal’s standalone fundamentals. The company recently exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, but revenue growth remained modest and earnings per share declined year over year, leaving execution of its turnaround as the key valuation driver.
• Negative Sentiment: The reported withdrawal eliminates the takeover premium that had supported PYPL during weeks of deal speculation. Reports cited valuation concerns, regulatory hurdles and a breakdown in negotiations; the abrupt reversal has therefore prompted investors to reassess PayPal at its lower standalone valuation. PayPal Shares Fall After Consortium Abandons Takeover Pursuit
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts, including Mizuho, are highlighting risks facing PayPal after the deal collapsed. The heavy trading volume and test of the 50-day moving average indicate heightened uncertainty as investors await evidence that the company can generate sufficient growth independently. Why PayPal Stock Is Down and What Mizuho Thinks Comes Next

PayPal Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PYPL opened at $53.66 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.90 billion, a PE ratio of 10.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.30. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.46 and a twelve month high of $79.21. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $53.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.11.

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

PayPal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. PayPal’s payout ratio is presently 10.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PayPal news, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.10, for a total transaction of $77,679.70. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 2,216 shares in the company, valued at $128,749.60. This represents a 37.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 4,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.96, for a total value of $253,715.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,888,723.68. The trade was a 11.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 14,774 shares of company stock worth $738,249 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of PayPal from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Telsey Advisory Group lowered PayPal to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley set a $45.00 target price on PayPal in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on PayPal from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.14.

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.