PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• PayPal currently has a consensus analyst rating of "Hold" from 45 covering analysts, with an average 12-month price target of about $55.85.
• The company recently beat quarterly expectations, reporting $1.34 EPS versus $1.27 expected and $8.35 billion in revenue versus $8.05 billion expected, while revenue rose 7.2% year over year.
• PayPal also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share, and insiders have recently sold shares, including CAO Chris Natali and insider Suzan Kereere.

Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the forty-five analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirty-two have given a hold recommendation and eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $55.8514.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PYPL shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their price target on PayPal from $50.00 to $32.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $42.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued a "sell" rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Monday, February 23rd.

PayPal Stock Up 0.5%

PYPL opened at $41.46 on Wednesday. PayPal has a fifty-two week low of $38.46 and a fifty-two week high of $79.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $46.07 and a 200-day moving average of $50.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $36.57 billion, a PE ratio of 7.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.34.

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

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. PayPal's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.51%.

Insider Activity at PayPal

In related news, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.46, for a total value of $66,128.02. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $78,443.56. This trade represents a 45.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 3,379 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total value of $144,587.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,325,762.57. The trade was a 9.83% 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 20,612 shares of company stock valued at $966,623. Corporate insiders own 0.63% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PYPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 5,534,462 shares during the period. NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its position in PayPal by 47.8% in the 3rd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 411,262 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $27,579,000 after buying an additional 132,942 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its position in PayPal by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 463,701 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $31,096,000 after buying an additional 80,744 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in PayPal by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 27,953,803 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $1,874,637,000 after buying an additional 636,441 shares during the period. Finally, Step Capital Management Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in PayPal in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,130,000. 68.32% of the stock is 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.

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