PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday after Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on the stock from $80.00 to $88.00. The stock had previously closed at $66.99, but opened at $70.00. Monness Crespi & Hardt currently has a buy rating on the stock. PayPal shares last traded at $69.64, with a volume of 17,976,552 shares changing hands.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on PYPL. Argus cut PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. StockNews.com upgraded PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on PayPal from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on PayPal from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on PayPal from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Twenty-four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.72.

Insider Activity at PayPal

In related news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total value of $466,079.04. Following the completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PayPal

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PYPL. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of PayPal during the 4th quarter valued at $9,267,000. Bartlett & Co. LLC increased its position in shares of PayPal by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Bartlett & Co. LLC now owns 9,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $594,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in shares of PayPal by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 847,006 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $53,344,000 after purchasing an additional 73,687 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of PayPal by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 20,242 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after purchasing an additional 942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bellecapital International Ltd. increased its position in shares of PayPal by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Bellecapital International Ltd. now owns 21,685 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,332,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PayPal Trading Up 1.4 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $71.50 billion, a PE ratio of 17.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $63.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $7.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.52 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 20.84% and a net margin of 14.26%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Company Profile

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.