Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Buys 1,132,085 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 139.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,944,522 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,132,085 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in PayPal were worth $113,521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PYPL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,276,205,000 after purchasing an additional 5,534,462 shares during the period. Rule One Partners LLC acquired a new stake in PayPal during the 4th quarter worth about $2,043,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in PayPal by 47.8% during the 3rd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 411,262 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $27,579,000 after acquiring an additional 132,942 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC grew its holdings in PayPal by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 463,701 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $31,096,000 after acquiring an additional 80,744 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in PayPal by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 27,953,803 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,874,637,000 after acquiring an additional 636,441 shares during the period. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $50.00 price target (down from $60.00) on shares of PayPal in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Citigroup increased their price target on PayPal from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Daiwa Securities Group raised shares of PayPal from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PayPal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.85.

PayPal Stock Up 0.7%

PayPal stock opened at $41.53 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $45.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.93. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.46 and a 1-year high of $79.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.34.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The credit services provider reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.07. PayPal had a net margin of 15.00% and a return on equity of 25.02%. The business had revenue of $8.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Frank Keller sold 4,612 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.54, for a total transaction of $196,194.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 41,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,768,260.18. This trade represents a 9.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.46, for a total transaction of $66,128.02. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,443.56. This trade represents a 45.74% decrease in their position. 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 90 days, insiders sold 20,612 shares of company stock worth $966,623. Insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

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.