PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Trading Up 3.1% on Analyst Upgrade

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) shares were up 3.1% during trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $75.00 to $80.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. PayPal traded as high as $86.95 and last traded at $86.62. Approximately 2,537,429 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 6,823,171 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.99.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on PYPL. Stephens lifted their target price on PayPal from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on PayPal from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of PayPal from $76.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of PayPal from $92.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.32.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in PayPal in the 3rd quarter valued at $387,435,000. United Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of PayPal in the 3rd quarter valued at about $810,000. FCG Investment Co acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal in the third quarter valued at about $1,079,000. Equity Investment Corp raised its holdings in PayPal by 3.5% during the third quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,998,298 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $155,927,000 after acquiring an additional 67,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weil Company Inc. boosted its position in PayPal by 68.9% during the third quarter. Weil Company Inc. now owns 41,689 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,253,000 after purchasing an additional 17,003 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $89.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $87.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.40.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $7.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 14.08% and a return on equity of 23.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Company Profile

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.