PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Stock Price Down 2.7%

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) shares were down 2.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $62.95 and last traded at $63.12. Approximately 3,070,083 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 16,135,881 shares. The stock had previously closed at $64.84.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on PYPL shares. Daiwa Capital Markets cut PayPal from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $64.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. StockNews.com upgraded PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on PayPal from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.47.

PayPal Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $69.43 billion, a PE ratio of 17.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.45.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The credit services provider reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $8.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 20.84% and a net margin of 14.26%. PayPal’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total value of $466,079.04. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,430 shares in the company, valued at $1,420,795.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter valued at $9,267,000. Bartlett & Co. LLC increased its stake in PayPal by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Bartlett & Co. LLC now owns 9,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $594,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in PayPal by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 847,006 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $53,344,000 after purchasing an additional 73,687 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 4.9% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 20,242 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after buying an additional 942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bellecapital International Ltd. grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Bellecapital International Ltd. now owns 21,685 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,332,000 after buying an additional 433 shares in the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a technology platform that enables digital payments on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. It operates a two-sided network at scale that connects merchants and consumers that enables its customers to connect, transact, and send and receive payments through online and in person, as well as transfer and withdraw funds using various funding sources, such as bank accounts, PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products comprising its installment products, credit and debit cards, and cryptocurrencies, as well as other stored value products, including gift cards and eligible rewards.