PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Trading Up 1.8% – What’s Next?

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)’s share price shot up 1.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $62.31 and last traded at $61.66. Approximately 15,452,050 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 18% from the average session volume of 18,888,129 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.59.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on PYPL. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of PayPal from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on PayPal from $48.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $50.00 price target on PayPal in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Mizuho lifted their price target on PayPal from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Argus set a $70.00 price objective on PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.72.

PayPal Trading Up 1.8%

The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.18. The firm has a market cap of $52.76 billion, a PE ratio of 11.66, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.30.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.10. PayPal had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 24.39%. The business had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.47 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.40 earnings per share. PayPal’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.37 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. PayPal’s payout ratio is 10.59%.

Insider Transactions at PayPal

In other PayPal news, insider Frank Keller sold 4,612 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.54, for a total value of $196,194.48. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 41,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,768,260.18. This trade represents a 9.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 3,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total transaction of $144,587.41. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,325,762.57. The trade was a 9.83% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 10,612 shares of company stock worth $484,534 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PYPL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in PayPal by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,276,205,000 after purchasing an additional 5,534,462 shares in the last quarter. Rule One Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of PayPal during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,043,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of PayPal by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,608,600 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $117,987,000 after purchasing an additional 121,400 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of PayPal by 705.2% in the 4th quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 100,651 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $5,876,000 after purchasing an additional 88,151 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in PayPal by 76.0% during the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 54,458 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,430,000 after buying an additional 23,516 shares in the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.