Insider Selling: PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) CAO Sells 552 Shares

Key Points

• PayPal CAO Chris Natali sold 552 shares at an average price of $54.80, generating $30,249.60. The Rule 10b5-1 transaction reduced his direct ownership by 18.7% to 2,400 shares.
• PayPal shares fell 3.2% to $53.18 during midday trading, while the company’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations with adjusted earnings of $1.38 per share and revenue of $8.68 billion.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating, with an average price target of $56.03; PayPal also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share, yielding approximately 1.1% annually.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL - Get Free Report) CAO Chris Natali sold 552 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.80, for a total transaction of $30,249.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $131,520. This trade represents a 18.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Chris Natali also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, July 29th, Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of PayPal stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.10, for a total transaction of $77,679.70.

PayPal Trading Down 3.2%

NASDAQ:PYPL traded down $1.78 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $53.18. The stock had a trading volume of 9,714,165 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,377,672. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $38.46 and a one year high of $79.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $55.26 and a 200 day moving average of $48.75. The company has a market capitalization of $45.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.05, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.28.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.47 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 24.39% and a net margin of 14.36%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. PayPal's payout ratio is presently 10.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PYPL shares. HSBC started coverage on PayPal in a research report on Friday, July 24th. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Mizuho set a $51.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a report on Friday, August 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. William Blair reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on PayPal from $46.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating 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 MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $56.03.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PYPL. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal in the second quarter worth $3,236,989,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in PayPal by 4,036.2% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 55,904,110 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $2,413,939,000 after purchasing an additional 54,552,522 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in PayPal by 67.9% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 10,356,256 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in PayPal in the fourth quarter valued at $949,758,000. Finally, Amundi grew its position in PayPal by 227.6% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 13,804,208 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $624,364,000 after purchasing an additional 9,590,488 shares during the period. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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