National Pension Service Lowers Position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Key Points

• National Pension Service cut its PayPal stake by 48.7% in the fourth quarter, leaving it with about 1.47 million shares valued at roughly $85.6 million.
• PayPal’s latest earnings beat expectations, with EPS of $1.34 on revenue of $8.35 billion, while quarterly revenue rose 7.2% year over year.
• The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share, payable June 25, which annualizes to a 1.3% yield.

National Pension Service trimmed its holdings in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL - Free Report) by 48.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,465,787 shares of the credit services provider's stock after selling 1,390,110 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.16% of PayPal worth $85,573,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PYPL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $5,276,205,000 after purchasing an additional 5,534,462 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 35.9% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,177,536 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $548,520,000 after purchasing an additional 2,160,227 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP purchased a new position in shares of PayPal during the third quarter valued at approximately $97,794,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 10.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,131,949 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $746,508,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab purchased a new position in shares of PayPal during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,680,000. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PayPal Price Performance

Shares of PYPL opened at $44.75 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $46.32 and a 200 day moving average of $51.38. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.46 and a twelve month high of $79.50.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The credit services provider reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 15.00% and a return on equity of 25.02%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. PayPal's payout ratio is 10.51%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PayPal news, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.46, for a total value of $66,128.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $78,443.56. The trade was a 45.74% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 Frank Keller sold 10,732 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.96, for a total transaction of $536,170.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 41,567 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,076,687.32. This trade represents a 20.52% 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 57,373 shares of company stock valued at $2,684,341. Company insiders own 0.63% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PYPL. KGI Securities reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of PayPal from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of PayPal from $67.00 to $48.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on shares of PayPal from $41.00 to $43.50 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $55.85.

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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