Rakuten Securities Inc. Acquires New Shares in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 10,857 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $667,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in PayPal by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,246,996 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $144,215,000 after buying an additional 138,875 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management raised its stake in PayPal by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 4,894 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $566,000 after buying an additional 387 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its stake in PayPal by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 6,860 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $793,000 after buying an additional 918 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in PayPal by 136.1% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,334 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Donaldson Capital Management LLC raised its stake in PayPal by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 3,095 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $358,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of PayPal from $76.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. DZ Bank lowered PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, February 9th. UBS Group upped their price objective on PayPal from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on PayPal from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on PayPal from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total transaction of $466,079.04. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,420,795.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

PayPal Trading Down 0.9 %

PayPal stock traded down $0.58 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $62.85. The stock had a trading volume of 3,933,660 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,668,592. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $50.25 and a 52-week high of $77.94. The firm has a market cap of $66.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a fifty day moving average of $62.15 and a 200 day moving average of $59.86.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. PayPal had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 20.84%. The company had revenue of $8.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.