WoodTrust Financial Corp Sells 56,974 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Key Points

• WoodTrust Financial Corp cut its PayPal stake by 35.1% in Q4, selling 56,974 shares and leaving it with 105,572 shares valued at about $6.16 million.
• PayPal announced a strategic reorganization into three operating units and is separating Venmo as a standalone unit, a move intended to streamline decision-making and potentially unlock value or attract buyers.
• Despite the restructuring, PayPal recently missed quarterly EPS and revenue expectations, and analysts remain cautious with a consensus rating of Hold and a $56.55 average price target.

WoodTrust Financial Corp trimmed its holdings in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL - Free Report) by 35.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 105,572 shares of the credit services provider's stock after selling 56,974 shares during the quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp's holdings in PayPal were worth $6,163,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,989 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 924 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of PayPal during the 4th quarter valued at about $248,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 41.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,470 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $332,000 after purchasing an additional 1,310 shares during the period. United Bank grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 40.1% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 17,388 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $1,292,000 after purchasing an additional 4,974 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 17.9% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 18,909 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $1,405,000 after purchasing an additional 2,865 shares during the period. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

PayPal News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: PayPal announced a strategic reorganization into three operating units (Checkout Solutions & PayPal; Consumer Financial Services & Venmo; Payment Services & Crypto) and named five leaders to drive execution — a move intended to streamline decision-making and accelerate growth. This is the company’s official plan and the primary driver of today’s bullish sentiment. PayPal Announces Strategic Reorganization to Accelerate Growth
• Positive Sentiment: The firm is separating Venmo into a standalone unit, making its performance easier to track and increasing the possibility of a partial or full sale — a catalyst that can unlock value and attract takeover interest from players like Stripe. PayPal makes Venmo a separate unit as CEO Lores looks to boost growth
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership/merchant traction: BigCommerce is integrating PayPal’s Store Sync to enable AI-driven discovery and checkout, supporting merchant adoption and potential transaction volume gains. Commerce Announces Integration of PayPal’s Store Sync to Enable AI-Powered Discovery and Checkout for BigCommerce Merchants
• Positive Sentiment: Credibility boost: the U.S. Treasury added PayPal and Venmo as accepted payment options for contributions toward the national debt, increasing visibility and transactional relevance. U.S. Treasury Taps PayPal (PYPL) to Fight $39 Trillion National Debt
• Neutral Sentiment: Product expansion: PayPal launched an Ads ID product as it pushes further into digital advertising — a potential new revenue stream, but still early-stage and unproven in driving meaningful top-line growth. PayPal (PYPL) Launches Ads ID Days Before New CEO First Earnings Test
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage: BMO recently issued a new rating on PYPL; analysts remain cautious overall, reflecting mixed views on execution risk versus valuation upside. PayPal Receives a New Rating from BMO Capital
• Negative Sentiment: Earnings outlook: previews and analyst commentary ahead of Q1 earnings indicate expectations of lower near-term results, which is a headwind until management can show execution gains from the reorg. This underpins some analyst caution and explains why some investors see risk despite the restructuring. Earnings Preview: Paypal (PYPL) Q1 Earnings Expected to Decline

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on PYPL. HSBC downgraded PayPal from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $47.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group set a $50.00 price target on PayPal in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Citizens Jmp restated a "market perform" rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Compass Point upgraded PayPal from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $51.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on PayPal from $64.00 to $41.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-three have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PayPal presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $56.55.

PayPal Price Performance

NASDAQ PYPL traded down $0.98 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $49.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,664,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,051,104. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $46.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $38.46 and a 1 year high of $79.50. The company has a market capitalization of $44.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.23, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.40.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The credit services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.29 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $8.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.82 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 25.42% and a net margin of 15.77%.The firm's revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 4th. PayPal's dividend payout ratio is 10.35%.

Insider Transactions at PayPal

In other news, EVP Frank Keller sold 29,581 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.02, for a total transaction of $1,361,317.62. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 51,567 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,373,113.34. This represents a 36.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 2,208 shares of the company's 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,140 shares in the company, valued at $50,992.20. This trade represents a 65.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 87,608 shares of company stock valued at $3,831,535 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.63% of the company's stock.

PayPal Company Profile

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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