PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL – Get Free Report) traded up 2.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $66.92 and last traded at $66.68. 5,227,089 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 18,805,434 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.05.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several equities analysts have recently commented on PYPL shares. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Argus downgraded PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on PayPal from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on PayPal from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PayPal presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.63.
PayPal Stock Up 1.7 %
The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market cap of $70.89 billion, a PE ratio of 17.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.44. The business has a fifty day moving average of $60.89 and a 200-day moving average of $59.29.
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The credit services provider reported $1.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $8.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.88 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 20.84% and a net margin of 14.26%. PayPal’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other PayPal news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total transaction of $466,079.04. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,420,795.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On PayPal
Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in PayPal by 110,462.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,136,071 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,220,431,000 after buying an additional 17,120,572 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,022,333,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in PayPal by 122.0% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,230,481 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $720,555,000 after buying an additional 3,424,122 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in PayPal by 36.2% in the 2nd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 10,771,095 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $718,755,000 after buying an additional 2,862,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in PayPal by 420.6% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,238,980 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $190,371,000 after buying an additional 2,616,774 shares in the last quarter. 68.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
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.