PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Trading Up 0.6% on Analyst Upgrade

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)’s share price traded up 0.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $75.00 to $80.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. PayPal traded as high as $90.37 and last traded at $90.16. 1,413,177 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 7,271,020 shares. The stock had previously closed at $89.64.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on PYPL. Wolfe Research raised PayPal from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $107.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on PayPal from $73.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stephens lifted their price objective on PayPal from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Macquarie lifted their price target on PayPal from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on PayPal from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.32.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in PayPal by 12,919.4% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 10,500,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $819,315,000 after acquiring an additional 10,419,351 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in PayPal by 86.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,762,080 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,307,945,000 after buying an additional 7,767,072 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in PayPal during the third quarter worth approximately $387,435,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in PayPal by 28.1% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 8,511,242 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $493,907,000 after acquiring an additional 1,866,925 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in PayPal by 9,864.9% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,119,262 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $87,336,000 after acquiring an additional 1,108,030 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $90.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $86.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.31.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $7.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.88 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 23.44% and a net margin of 14.08%. The company’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current 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.