PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Trading 3.4% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)’s share price traded up 3.4% on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $60.00 to $65.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. PayPal traded as high as $70.66 and last traded at $69.27. 23,027,576 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 41% from the average session volume of 16,320,342 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.99.

PYPL has been the topic of several other reports. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of PayPal from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of PayPal in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of PayPal from $100.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of PayPal from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of PayPal from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Twenty-five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In other PayPal news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were 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 $1,420,795.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PayPal

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in PayPal by 3.5% in the first quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 29,652 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares in the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of PayPal during the first quarter valued at about $2,593,000. DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 123.4% during the first quarter. DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co now owns 7,340 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $492,000 after buying an additional 4,055 shares during the last quarter. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of PayPal during the first quarter valued at about $415,000. Finally, Bray Capital Advisors grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 15.5% during the first quarter. Bray Capital Advisors now owns 18,376 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,231,000 after buying an additional 2,462 shares during the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PayPal Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $69.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.22, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.45. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $63.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $7.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.52 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 20.84%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.86 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.02 EPS for the current 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.