Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Boosts Position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 723,944 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,277 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. owned about 0.07% of PayPal worth $61,789,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PYPL. Kazazian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of PayPal during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,026,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in shares of PayPal by 46.6% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 90,623 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,709,000 after acquiring an additional 28,817 shares during the last quarter. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC boosted its position in shares of PayPal by 21.5% during the 4th quarter. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC now owns 70,454 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $6,013,000 after acquiring an additional 12,468 shares during the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd boosted its position in shares of PayPal by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 49,179 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $4,201,000 after acquiring an additional 2,706 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Platinum Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of PayPal by 4,466.2% during the 4th quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. now owns 60,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $5,121,000 after acquiring an additional 58,686 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PYPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on PayPal from $92.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on PayPal from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America upgraded PayPal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $86.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on PayPal from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.03.

PayPal Trading Down 0.5 %

PayPal stock opened at $69.67 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $80.81. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $56.97 and a 12 month high of $93.66. The company has a market capitalization of $68.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.52.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The credit services provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.08. PayPal had a return on equity of 23.67% and a net margin of 13.04%. The business had revenue of $8.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.48 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gail J. Mcgovern sold 2,446 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.15, for a total transaction of $176,478.90. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,145,308.10. This represents a 7.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.