Cantor Fitzgerald Boosts PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Price Target to $60.00

Key Points

• Cantor Fitzgerald raised PayPal’s price target from $54 to $60 while maintaining a “neutral” rating, implying approximately 4.88% upside. Analysts’ consensus rating remains “Hold,” with an average price target of $55.67.
• PayPal exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting adjusted EPS of $1.38 versus a $1.28 estimate and revenue of $8.68 billion versus $8.47 billion expected; revenue increased 4.8% year over year.
• Institutional investors own 68.32% of PayPal, with several major firms increasing their stakes, while insiders sold 10,612 shares worth about $484,534 over the past three months.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL - Get Free Report) had its price objective raised by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $54.00 to $60.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "neutral" rating on the credit services provider's stock. Cantor Fitzgerald's price target would suggest a potential upside of 4.88% from the company's current price.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on PYPL. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $50.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised PayPal from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. BTIG Research restated a "neutral" rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group set a $45.00 target price on PayPal in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on PayPal from $46.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $55.67.

PayPal Stock Performance

Shares of PayPal stock opened at $57.21 on Monday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $47.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.02. The company has a market capitalization of $48.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.81, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. PayPal has a 12-month low of $38.46 and a 12-month high of $79.21.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that PayPal will post 5.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Frank Keller sold 4,612 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.54, for a total transaction of $196,194.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 41,567 shares in the company, valued at $1,768,260.18. The trade was a 9.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.10, for a total value of $77,679.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 2,216 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,749.60. This represents a 37.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 10,612 shares of company stock valued at $484,534. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PYPL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in PayPal during the fourth quarter worth about $949,758,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in PayPal by 67.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,614,720 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $1,158,554,000 after buying an additional 10,356,256 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in PayPal by 227.6% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 13,804,208 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $624,364,000 after buying an additional 9,590,488 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 6.5% during 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 buying an additional 5,534,462 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 355.1% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,967,170 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $224,665,000 after buying an additional 3,875,688 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company's stock.

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.

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