Ceera Investments LLC Decreases Stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Ceera Investments LLC reduced its position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 13.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 84,840 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 12,640 shares during the period. PayPal accounts for about 1.9% of Ceera Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Ceera Investments LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $4,953,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allstate Corp lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 87.5% in the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 62,761 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,664,000 after buying an additional 29,280 shares in the last quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 14,246 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $832,000 after buying an additional 957 shares in the last quarter. Kazazian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 78.8% in the fourth quarter. Kazazian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $467,000 after buying an additional 3,526 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,006,625 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $409,047,000 after buying an additional 54,749 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Investment Strategies LLC now owns 75,463 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $4,406,000 after buying an additional 16,468 shares in the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PayPal Stock Performance

PYPL opened at $44.23 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $39.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.39. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $46.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.91. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $38.46 and a one year high of $79.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.26.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The credit services provider reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.05 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 25.02% and a net margin of 15.00%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.3 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid 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 10.51%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PYPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on PayPal from $42.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. HSBC cut PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on PayPal from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on PayPal from $50.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.85.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Frank Keller sold 29,581 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.02, for a total value of $1,361,317.62. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 51,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,373,113.34. This represents a 36.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 2,208 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.73, for a total value of $98,763.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,992.20. This trade represents a 65.95% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 57,373 shares of company stock valued at $2,684,341 over the last quarter. 0.63% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About PayPal

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.