Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Trims Holdings in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,435 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 255 shares during the period. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $209,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 45,423,344 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,449,434,000 after acquiring an additional 1,202,956 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,947,345 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,586,966,000 after acquiring an additional 235,651 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,069,337 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,173,254,000 after acquiring an additional 873,181 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 110,462.4% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,136,071 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,220,431,000 after acquiring an additional 17,120,572 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of PayPal during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,022,333,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PYPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt cut their price target on PayPal from $95.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on PayPal from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. UBS Group upped their price target on PayPal from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Argus cut PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.47.

PayPal Price Performance

NASDAQ PYPL traded up $0.21 on Friday, reaching $62.31. The company had a trading volume of 13,177,880 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,214,834. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $62.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.93. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $50.25 and a 12 month high of $76.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.59 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.12. PayPal had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 20.84%. The firm had revenue of $8.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total transaction of $466,079.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,420,795.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.