PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the forty-seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirty-four have issued a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $56.0278.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on PayPal from $43.50 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on PayPal from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of PayPal from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on PayPal from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th.

PayPal News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: PayPal said customers will be able to shop and complete payments through Meta’s Muse personal AI agents across PayPal’s global merchant network. Investors appear to view the partnership as an opportunity to capture payments from AI-generated shopping transactions and expand PayPal’s relevance in digital commerce. Meta Adds PayPal to Muse AI Assistant for Global Checkout
• Positive Sentiment: The announcement follows Shopify’s decision to use Muse and comes as other commerce platforms develop AI-assisted checkout options. The arrangement gives PayPal another distribution route for its payment infrastructure, although the eventual revenue impact remains uncertain. PayPal Will Use Meta’s Muse, Too. The Stock Rises.

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In other PayPal news, CAO Chris Natali sold 552 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.80, for a total transaction of $30,249.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 2,400 shares in the company, valued at $131,520. This represents a 18.70% 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 3,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.72, for a total value of $188,277.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,726,372.76. The trade was a 9.83% 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 14,774 shares of company stock valued at $848,095 in the last 90 days. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in PayPal by 15,233.3% in the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 460 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC boosted its position in PayPal by 8,700.0% in the fourth quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 528 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of PayPal during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of PayPal during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of PayPal stock opened at $52.89 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $45.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.28. PayPal has a 1 year low of $38.46 and a 1 year high of $79.21.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.10. PayPal had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 24.39%. The business had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that PayPal will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.59%.

About PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc is a digital payments and financial technology company that operates a global platform for consumers and businesses. Its services enable customers to send and receive money, make purchases online and in stores, and accept payments through digital checkout solutions. PayPal supports transactions using linked bank accounts, debit and credit cards, stored balances and other payment methods.

The company’s consumer and merchant offerings include the PayPal wallet, PayPal Checkout, PayPal Zettle point-of-sale tools, PayPal Braintree payment processing and PayPal Complete Payments.