Easterly Investment Partners LLC Acquires 88,151 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Easterly Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 705.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,651 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 88,151 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $5,876,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Maia Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Maia Wealth LLC now owns 6,404 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in PayPal by 2.9% in the third quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $382,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Martin & Co. Inc. TN lifted its stake in PayPal by 0.3% in the third quarter. Martin & Co. Inc. TN now owns 56,934 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,818,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in PayPal by 0.7% in the third quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 25,043 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,679,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GeoWealth Management LLC lifted its stake in PayPal by 6.2% in the third quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 3,214 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $216,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Stock Performance

Shares of PYPL stock opened at $44.75 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $39.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.40, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s 50 day moving average is $46.32 and its 200 day moving average is $51.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $38.46 and a 52-week high of $79.50.

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

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.51%.

Insider Activity at PayPal

In other PayPal news, insider Suzan Kereere sold 13,515 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.02, for a total value of $621,960.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,425,837.66. The trade was a 30.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 2,208 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.73, for a total transaction of $98,763.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,140 shares in the company, valued at $50,992.20. This represents a 65.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 57,373 shares of company stock valued at $2,684,341 over the last ninety days. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on PYPL. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of PayPal from $65.00 to $45.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Wolfe Research reissued a “sell” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of PayPal from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Dbs Bank raised shares of PayPal to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of PayPal from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.85.

About PayPal

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.