Brokerages Set PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) PT at $55.85

Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the forty-five brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirty-two have assigned a hold recommendation and eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $55.8514.

A number of research firms have recently commented on PYPL. Compass Point raised shares of PayPal from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $51.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of PayPal from $67.00 to $48.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of PayPal from $41.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. HSBC cut shares of PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $47.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus reduced their target price on shares of PayPal from $87.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 6th.

PayPal Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ PYPL opened at $44.38 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.76. PayPal has a 52 week low of $38.46 and a 52 week high of $79.50. 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 stock has a market cap of $39.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.33, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.39.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The credit services provider reported $1.34 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that PayPal will post 5.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.51%.

Insider Activity at PayPal

In related news, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.46, for a total value of $66,128.02. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,443.56. This represents a 45.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 13,515 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.02, for a total transaction of $621,960.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,425,837.66. This represents a 30.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 94,986 shares of company stock valued at $4,244,904 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PYPL. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in PayPal by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,989 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $596,000 after acquiring an additional 924 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in PayPal in the fourth quarter valued at $248,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in PayPal by 41.5% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,470 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $332,000 after acquiring an additional 1,310 shares in the last quarter. United Bank raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 40.1% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 17,388 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,292,000 after purchasing an additional 4,974 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 17.9% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 18,909 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,405,000 after purchasing an additional 2,865 shares during the period. 68.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PayPal Company 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.